Vongola Ottavo
by CrystalPhoenixFlames
Summary: Vongola, the largest and most influential mafia family in the world with branches reaching even the most distant countries... I wanted none of that power. What I desired was something much simpler... Yet, it was right in front of me, and I never saw it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Warnings: Hello! This is a story centered on Daniela, Vongola Ottavo, so there's going to be a ton of OCs. There's also going to be a bit of bad language (not that bad haha). So, to set things off, the first chapter is pretty distant from the main KHR storyline, but there will be some "slightly" familiar face(s) (in a way) showing up later. Enjoy!

* * *

_If I had to choose a specific incident when I finally started realizing, bit by bit, what truly hid behind the mask my family wore, I guess the first event that comes to mind was that day… the eighth day of the eighth month of my eighth year…_

_It was summer of course, and Italian summers were beautifully hot that year… more so after they came… the other Family…_

---

She found herself face to face with a gun and nowhere to run. She knew what guns were; after all, Luciano always carried one or two with him wherever he was, in the mansion or out riding. But, she had never had one of those L-shaped pieces of metal aimed at her, nor did any of the servants or guards ever gave her the liberty of seeing one in action. So now, as dire as the situation was, Daniela couldn't gather enough logic to formulate the conclusion that running into the fire would probably give her a higher chance of surviving than facing that L-shaped piece of metal in the hands of some strange organization Daniela didn't know about and never did care to know about. Of course, she never did care to know about those outside her home, until now.

The man grinned, having finally found his target and didn't waste another second in firing. However, his initial hesitation, used to identify Daniela, gave another enough time to throw himself between the shooter and the girl as the first bullet left the barrel. A second shot followed the first, and another and another. Daniela felt a warm liquid splatter on her face and raised a hand to wipe it away, finding a red sticky substance.

"Mr.… Mr. Luciano?" she called out uncertainly to the man hunched over her, as the blood began to diffuse into his suit, staining the black striped material to a darker shade of night. He struggled to keep his position lest the shooter decided to fire another round at the young eighth Vongola heir.

"Run… Miss Daniela…" he gasped, trying to ignore the pain stemming from his chest. He almost swore that he can feel his lungs and heart deflating like balloons somewhere under his rib cage from the bullet punctures, but he wasn't much of a scientist or a doctor, and he dismissed the notion, determined to defy physics a little longer. However, the girl didn't budge and instead stared at him with frightened eyes as the assassin began walking towards them, reloading his gun with a smug expression, and a deliberately slow click echoed off what remained of the walls. Even if Daniela had decided to run now, there weren't many places she could have escaped to; the shooter had already strategically obstructed the only exit not blocked by the raging fire around them. The assassin raised the weapon again, aiming.

"Miss Daniela!" a new voice yelled out, and the girl heard gunshots again, followed by the sound of a bloodied corpse, definitely not Luciano's since he was still standing in front of her, dropping to the ground. "Miss Daniela!" the voice repeated, as a young man ran to them, his light blue eyes widening when he saw the blood on the older man and the girl.

"She's fine…" the other managed to say.

"Ah! Mr. Luciano!" he gasped when the dying bodyguard finally allowed himself to fall to the ground in a bloody heap. Panicking, the fifteen year old butler turned Luciano around slowly so that the man lied on his back.

Luciano coughed out blood, and the red liquid began pooling beneath him as well as flow freely from his mouth at the corners of his lips. "Ah… Nico… you weren't the one who fired…" he whispered weakly, smiling serenely. His vision was beginning to waver in and out, blurs clouding around the edges, but he could still detect the lack of gunpowder on the teenager.

"No… one of the special units just arrived…"

The man chuckled. "You're still too soft… Nicolas…" His breathing was erratic, and he coughed again from the effort. Nico froze; Luciano rarely addressed him by his real name unless he wanted a serious conversation.

"Let's go, Mr. Luciano! We have to get out of here!" Daniela said, pulling at her bodyguard's limp hand, smearing some of his own blood that had fallen on her earlier on his hand.

"Miss Daniela… I'm sorry…" he said with difficulty, the strange smile still on his lips. "Promise me you'll find someone else to go horse-riding with you… okay?"

She froze, still not accepting the situation. "Why? Where is Mr. Luciano going?"

"I'll be right here… don't worry about me…" He turned his head slightly towards the butler. "Hey Nicolas… promise me… that you'll take of Miss Daniela… promise me…" he whispered.

"Don't talk like that. We're getting you out of here," Nico said to him, reaching to him, ready to hoist the man twice his size on his shoulder.

Luciano weakly knocked the butler's hand aside. "Promise me…"

"Mr. Luciano!"

"Promise me…" he repeated as another wave of coughs shook him.

"I promise! Now let's get you…" he stopped, letting the last word roll away. The other had finally allowed his eyes to close upon hearing the promise, and his breathing was no longer visible. "Mr. Luciano…"

"Mr. Luciano?" Daniela called her bodyguard, shaking the corpse. She repeated his name again, panic creeping into her small figure. "Wake up or the fire will eat you! Mr. Luciano!"

Something exploded near them, reminding them that they were in a burning building, previously a summer mansions belonging to Vongola. In one swift movement, Nico lifted the eight year girl, who was light enough unlike her bodyguard, up in his arms and ran out of the house, giving the fallen man a last backward glance.

Daniela didn't speak at all during the escape and instead looked silently at the blood on her hands, which was already drying and flaking away due to the heat around them.

---

_It wasn't like I started hating the sight of blood after Luciano died. I would just always look back to that day… and wonder if I could've prevented his death, if I had only moved and ran into the fire. I remember looking back at the burning house afterwards and watching it crumple into a heap of ashes. I wasn't scared; in fact, I was amazed by the power fire had. If I had only known exactly what Vongola was and what role I was meant to play it in, I might have saved my friend. Those are useless thoughts now; he's dead and the dead never come back, no matter how much one wishes it._

_I didn't know it then, but five of the ten Vongola heirs were attacked that day. Three were killed, including my father, the Seventh's brother. My mother was with him, at the summer home where we were staying… I didn't know any of that at that moment… when I saw the orange flames dance on the wood in the horizon. It was a hot summer day…_

* * *

Note: Thank you for reading! I know it's a little depressing, but it's supposed to be like… a tragic comedy XD… or not… I don't know… but it's not all angst. I like angst though… the comedy will be coming soon (I hope).

Also, I was considering putting an OC character list somewhere just to keep track of them. Give out a yell if you start getting confused later about who's who (I'll probably get confused myself).


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

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_Two years… for two years I lived my life as normally as any respectable aristocrat could without her parents. Uncle Fabio attempted to send a replacement for Luciano, but, I admit, I chased each one away. Not literally of course, it's not like I had the physical strength to take on a trained full-fledged member of the mafia. But, they were all fools, thinking that they could win the Seventh's favor through me._

_That is… until Uncle Fabio decided to have a little change of approaches. After all, it was safer for both him and me if I had a bodyguard, and the Seventh was getting increasing desperate and annoyed at my indifference… and I… I was only ten years old and didn't know any better…_

---

"How many have there been so far? Ten of them?" Nico heard one of the female servants whisper to her friend inside the kitchen as they prepared that day's breakfast.

"Seventeen…" the other corrected her. "I wonder how this one's going to fare; I heard that he's a foreigner."

"Eh? A foreigner? All the previous ones were Italian. Is he also from the Family?"

"I don't know… but Vongola does have a wide reach… Ah, Mr. Nicolas, good morning!" the servant said when she saw the butler enter.

"Good morning," Nico replied, giving the two a smile as he walked over to the counter to prepare the tea.

The three worked for a while with only the sound of the food preparation disturbing their silence until finally, the first speaker, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, blurted, "He's coming tomorrow, right? The new bodyguard for Miss Daniela?"

"That's what I was told," Nico answered her.

"What's he like this time?" she inquired boldly.

Nico chuckled. "Too be truthful, even I don't know. They didn't give me many details."

"Aw, I guess we'll just have to wait…" she said, disappointed, and suddenly realized something horrible. "Where's my pancake?"

"You… don't flip pancakes like that…" they heard Nico say and turned slowly to him to see the missing piece of batter on his head.

After eating and cleaning up breakfast, Nico decided to have a little talk with the "lady" of the house, who had retreated to her study room as usual after meals when there weren't any classes. He thought the conversation through in his head as he headed up the stairs and, after taking a breath to compose himself, entered the study, the usual sight of shelves filled to the brim with books meeting him. As expected, Daniela sat at the single wooden desk in the room, sheets of paper and various pens and pencils cluttered on the tabletop around her.

At age ten, Daniela of the Vongola Family was a person with a mouth that didn't match her obviously still child-like appearance. Nico had taken many precautions to keep her away from swear words, or else, he'd predicted, she'd be weaving them into her normal everyday conversations without a second thought or care. Then again, most of the time, Daniela stayed away from normal conversation, preferring to rid herself of the other person as fast as she can so that she could go back to whatever she was doing at the time. There had only been a few rare occasions that Nico managed to leave her presence without being dismissed, formally or the other. Meals did not count.

"Are you drawing again?" he asked her, making her look up. She stared at him for a second, studying his expression, and returned to her work.

"She probably already knows what I'm here for…' he thought. Regardless, Nico deposited himself on one of the two sofas, grabbing a nearby book to feign reading. Advantages of having such an unorthodox mistress gave him quite a few liberties not held by other butlers.

"You know, Miss Daniela, the new bodyguard is coming tomorrow," Nico said casually after a few pages.

"Tell him to go away," she answered, reaching over the desk for a reference book.

"You can't just keep on sending them away. As an heir to Vongola, you must be protected at all times," he began.

"Don't need them. And, there's still four before me," she cut him off curtly as she reached into a drawer, fumbling through its contents for something other than drawing-related materials. She knew the lecture was coming.

"Look, I know the last few may have too fat or too skinny for your tastes…" he began his well thought out "discussion." A dart whizzed past him and hit the target board on the opposite side of the room with a clunk. Daniela was twirling another one of the little sharp toys in her hand and took aim again.

"Number fifteen wanted to look good in front of Uncle." The next dart hit an outside ring. "Number sixteen wanted to increase his prospects of becoming a Guardian." A second landed a little closer to the middle, off by three rings. "Number seventeen also wanted to look good in front of Uncle." The final dart hit the mark, landing cleanly in the middle of the bullseye. "Therefore, I do not need a number eighteen." Sometimes Nico wondered if she purposely missed the shots that didn't go in. He turned back to Daniela, who had already returned to her drawing.

'She threw the darts to distract me… and I actually fell for that…' he thought miserably. 'Ah… What was I going to say again?'

"Why didn't you just confront them about that that instead of calling them names?" he gave up trying to recall the point he wanted to make; Daniela had already been expecting it.

"I did. After I called them names… or they wouldn't have taken me seriously."

He sighed, shaking his head. "All people have dishonorable desires. We can't change that, but I assure you, they can still do their jobs."

"This one won't be any different," she said, adding another line to her picture.

"Well, he's not from Italy this time. That means his connections with the main Vongola base wouldn't be as close."

"Makes no difference…" she repeated.

'She's impossible!' Nico thought violently and swam for a few seconds in his own thoughts. 'If she'll only keep one bodyguard, then the people from Vongola would stop bothering me!'

Daniela reached into the desk drawer and took out a set of paints. "If you have nothing else to say, please leave. My lessons aren't until two o'clock."

Nico sighed again. "Yes, Miss Daniela." He stood up to leave.

"If you have nothing better to do other than thinking of useless attempts to convince me of useless things, then go and find out some information on him," Daniela said after him.

"I'll do that…" He took extra care not to slam the door.

---

Nico tapped his fingers impatiently as the phone continued to ring on the other end. He had already attempted at least a dozen times the past three hours, but the crazy madman just never seemed to pick up the phone when Nico actually wanted to talk to him. His usual informant always seemed to call whenever the butler was busy preparing for some big event or taking a shower, but never at the "correct" time. Finally, the butler heard a click on the other end and nearly exploded into the speaker.

"Learn to pick up your phone, Friedrich!" he yelled.

"Ow, that was exceedingly painful," the man on the other end responded monotonously, much to Nico's annoyance. "So, to what reason do I owe the honor of receiving a call from you, old friend?"

"Stop with the formalities, Fritz. You're supposed to be a mad scientist, not some old bachelor."

"Hey! I'm not old at all! And for your information, I'm a data gatherer, not a mad scientist," the other retorted.

"Then why did you bring that… machine… thing… here last time you visited?"

"That, Nico, is an automated ketchup maker. I told you just to add the tomato…"

"Nevermind! I need some information on someone!"

"The price is one million yen," the other replied smoothly.

"I don't even use that currency!" Nico yelled and heard the sounds of tapping on the other end, most likely a computer. He stopped. "Wait, he's Japanese?"

"Eighteen year old prodigy from a family of… a lot of sons. Only one to enter Vongola. Rejected offer to join the Varia. Says here he's a little arrogant, but very good at what he does. Oh, and he also tends to not listen to orders," Fritz finished in one breath.

"Great…"

"I met him once," Fritz added casually.

"Really? Why didn't you mention that first?"

"Warning for you, Nico. Address him via Japanese customs. Also…" he stopped, and Nico heard a bit of shuffling on the other end, followed by static. "Oh dear, the new contraption's starting to smoke. I must depart. Sayonara!"

"Wait!" The phone on the other line clicked after he heard an explosion.

Nico clenched his own phone in his hand, reasoning with himself not to throw the object across the room. 'I'll just poison his cake the next time he comes here… yeah…' He calmly put the phone back on the receiver. 'Frivolous bastard…' Nico shook some of his bangs out of his eyes, exhausted. The butler had spent the last two years growing out his blue-tinted black hair only to have it slightly gelled and tied up in a small ponytail like one of the other butlers he had seen from another household that visited them every now and then.

"Tomorrow's gonna be hell…"

The next day, the butler once again found his charge inside the study room working on the same picture, this time finishing up painting.

"Miss Daniela, your bodyguard will be coming any minute now," he told her.

She ignored him and continued with her drawing.

He sighed. "I called Fritz yesterday…"

That caught her attention. "The German gentleman? Thank him for the ketchup maker, will you?"

"There's no way he's a gentleman, and that's not my point! How did you know it was a ketchup maker?"

"So your point has something to do with the ketchup maker?"

"No…" He took a deep breath to compose himself. "Anyway, Mr. Hibari is Japanese, eighteen, and gave up a position in the Varia to work here. You can at least show him a little more respect; you know those Varia…"

"Japanese?" she asked, looking up.

"Yes, and arrogant and professional, according to Fritz. Now, if you'll excuse, I have to go make some preparations."

"Okay, shoo," she waved her hand carelessly.

After the door clicked, Daniela added the last stroke to her drawing, frowning. After a moment of contemplation, she shook her head and headed to one of the bookshelves, taking out a book on Japanese customs. 'Just in case… Varia…'

---

Hibari Hachiro got out of the car, only to be blinded by the morning sun instead of the beauty of Italian architecture he had expected. He squinted, displeased at the sudden attack of photons on his eyes and wished that he hadn't decided on that haircut before coming.

"Welcome, Mr. Hibari," Nico said, bowing along with the rest of the servants.

The Japanese surveyed him for a second, meeting Nico's eyes, before looking away silently to study his surroundings, notably the mansion and gardens, but Nico didn't know that.

'Great… it's another one of _those_ bodyguards… arrogant bastard…' Nico forced a smile. He admitted that the other's appearance wasn't exactly what he expected. The man was fairly tall and not extremely muscular but carried himself easily, as if he knew exactly what each of his tendons were doing and how much force was being applied and used on each muscle. He looked like he had recently cut his black hair and didn't bother using gel; it was spiky and slightly messy, like he had just woken up and hopped onto the plane to Italy although his suit was neatly pressed. His narrow eyes were a strange dark bluish gray; Nico couldn't pinpoint the exact color. The butler looked for a gun or some sort of weapon but didn't find anything in immediate sight on the man.

"I'll show you to your room. Please follow me," Nico said after he finished his observation of the bodyguard, distracting the silent newcomer from his own study of the grounds. Hibari followed him up the stairs as the other servants looked on anxiously, wondering what to do. Nico gave them a wave of dismissal, and they eagerly scampered away back to their duties.

"Oh no… Miss Daniela's going to hate this one too," the curious servant from the previous morning muttered to her friend.

Meanwhile, Nico lead the new bodyguard down the hall. He tried again to initiate a conversation. "Miss Daniela is most likely in her study, so it'd be best if you meet with her yourself after you're settled. It's the third room on the East Wing; you can't miss it. We're currently in the West Wing; all living quarters are located here, so just ask around if you need anything. Lunch will be in four hours in the dining room on the first floor. Do you have any questions?"

He turned and twitched; Hibari was looking elsewhere and didn't seem to have been paying attention to him. 'I hope Miss Daniela gets rid of him quickly!' Nico thought violently.

"Here we are. If you need anything, feel free to ask any of the servants around here. I'll send up your luggage when it arrives. Good day," he finished in one breath and ran off.

Hibari found himself in a huge room, furnished with several sofas, tables, and chairs. Two other doors beside the entrance led to the bedroom and the bathroom on the right, and a set of fancy curtained windows lined the wall opposite to him. He made a beeline to the bedroom and threw off his shoes and coat, jumping under the covers of the huge bed. 'Jetlag…'

---

"Well, where is he?" Daniela inquired when Nico entered the study.

"I… I left him at his room to get settled," he replied, shaking a little with annoyance.

"You abandoned him that fast? That's not like you."

"He hasn't said a word to anyone since his arrival." Nico frowned. "I guess my hopes were misplaced this time, or maybe he doesn't even speak Italian. What was the Seventh thinking?"

"Try adding a –san at the end of his surname," she told Nico, shrugging.

"What?"

"It's equivalent to us saying Mr." she explained, collecting the darts from the dartboard. "If you're done complaining, either bring him here or I'll be seeing you at 10 o'clock for my lessons."

"I've already told him how to come here…"

"I will be seeing you at ten then." Three darts hit the board, one after the other, forming a perfect triangle on the bullseye.

'Darn… for a second I thought we were actually going to have an actual conversation…' Nico thought to himself as he left. Daniela watched him until the door closed behind him and sighed, shaking her head.

"I guess he forgot…"

---

'Where am I?' Hibari thought groggily as an unfamiliar ceiling came into his vision. 'Oh yeah… Italy…' He sat up, stretching, and looked at the clock. 'I slept for five hours…'

He opened his bedroom door to find his luggage piled in front of him. Shrugging, he walked past them to the restroom to splash some water on his face. Yawning again, Hibari walked back to his room, threw his jacket and shoes back on, and straightened his appearance.

Still half asleep, he left his room, heading for the East Wing. Just as Nico had described, the third door was easily recognized as the study room; it was an elegant double door engraved with the pattern of a tree.

He knocked twice, and, hearing no answer, turned the door knob slowly to let himself in. He looked around him, finding book-filled shelves and the one desk in the room with papers and scattered all over the tabletop. In the middle of the room were two sofas, each littered with one or two novels.

He walked over to the desk and found a myriad of drawing materials on the surface. On the middle of the table was a single drawing of a branch covered with pink flowers: a cherry blossom. Several books on the plant lied open around the work area. Ignoring the rest of the materials, he picked up the picture gently to study it more.

"Mr. Hibari!" Nico yelled, running into the room, earning no response. He twitched and tried again. "Hi…ba…ri…san!" he choked out. "Daniela is missing!"

"I thought you said she was in this room," Hibari, smirking, replied in perfect Italian.

'Huh? He… he spoke?' Nico shoved the thought aside. He wouldn't forgive himself if anything happened to Daniela. "That was five hours ago! She never showed up to her lessons."

Hibari turned his attention back to the picture. He placed it back on the desk and calmly walked over to the opened window with Nico watching him. In a one swift movement, he jumped on the window sill and out the house.

"Hibari-san!" Nico ran to the window and looked out, finding nothing except a few disturbed branches.

---

He found her easily enough and began following a short distance behind. They were in the middle of the woods, surrounded by nothing but trees and various sounds of deer and other animals.

"Stop following me!" Daniela suddenly said out loud. She whirled around, finding no one. "Hibari-san?" she said, betraying a little fright in her voice.

He revealed himself, stepping out from the trees. "Hibari Hachiro. Hibari is my surname."

She sighed, relieved, and continued walking. "Whatever."

"You can sense me…" he observed. "This must be Vongola's Hyper Intuition."

"Just leave me alone!" the girl retorted and quickened her pace. Regardless, Hibari continued trailing behind her, easily keeping up with her quickened pace with his longer legs.

They finally reached a graveyard, and Daniela walked right in without stopping until she reached a set of gravestones that looked like they were set up around the same time due to the effect of moss and time on them. She stood in front of the graves, staring at them silently.

"Do you come here often?" he asked her.

She didn't answer and instead took out some flowers from the bundle she was holding earlier and set a small bouquet on each of the graves. Lips tightening, Daniela muttered something under her breath.

"Huh? I didn't catch that."

"It's not fair… how time makes us forget things…" she repeated, a little louder.

"Life's not fair," he added carelessly. "If it was, I wouldn't be here."

"You're just like the others, aren't you?" she said, glaring at him. "None of them truly wanted to be here."

"The others?"

"Why did you agree to come here?" she demanded, her eyes already accusing him of dishonorable reasons.

He smirked again. She was getting annoyed on that arrogant expression that now seemed plastered on his previously expressionless face. "I was bored."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you draw when you're bored? This is just my way of dealing with boredom." He yawned again. "Italy's quite nice this time of year…"

---

_Boredom… If my mouth was as colorful back then as it is now, I would've replied, "What the hell?" Unfortunately… or I guess I'd consider it fortunate… my carelessness had finally caught up to me soon after he said those words…_

* * *

Note: Attack of the ketchup maker!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_To be honest, I've never seen a real fight prior to meeting Hachiro. It was true that I witnessed Luciano getting shot with my own eyes, but a fight… using actual skills… was something like a dance… a beautiful one. It was also then I decided that I would prefer ranged combat, if I was ever forced to learn the art…_

_And the Flames… they were… amazing…_

---

Daniela opened her mouth to retort, but Hachiro turned his head to the side, seemingly enjoying the scenery around him more than the conversation with the young Vongola heir. "Hey! Look at people when they're talking to you!" she yelled at him.

"A little fly seems to have been sneaking around since morning…" he muttered.

"Huh? What…" she began when Hachiro suddenly lifted the girl up and jumped away as the spot she was standing on exploded, sending debris flying in all directions.

"What are you doing? Put me down!" Daniela yelled at him when she realized that they were no longer the only ones in the graveyard.

"I'd listen to her if I were you," the newcomer said, standing up. He wrenched his claymore out of the ground and readied it, the sunlight reflecting off the metal. "You won't be so lucky the second time."

"What… what is he?" Daniela gasped. "How can he… do so much with a mere sword?"

"You don't leave your mansion very often, do you?" Hachiro asked her as he placed her back on the ground. "Stay here. I'll take care of the fly."

"How dare you! Do you want to die?" the assassin snarled.

Humming tunelessly, the bodyguard reached into his pocket and took out small plastic black case the size of a makeup container, snapping it open with his thumb, and removed two of the four objects from the foam interior before returning the case to his pocket. Each "fork" from the container was no bigger than his thumb and looked like tiny black metal trident models. Unlike a trident, the two outer prongs were curved outward and shorter compared to the middle one, and the hilt was only about a hand and a half long.

The other laughed. "You expect to fight me with little toy forks?" Hachiro ignored him and instead twirled the little models between his fingers, one on each hand. "I'll cut that smirk off your face!" The assassin ran at the bodyguard and swung the claymore at full speed. Suddenly, his weapon's momentum dissipated away as it stopped halfway through its swing, blocked by a pair of "forks" bathed in a clear purple flame: large versions of the previous toy models. "What the hell? What is this?"

"Hibari-san? That…" Daniela gasped.

"Cloud Flames… propagation," he answered her as he shoved the other man away, causing the assassin to stagger backwards.

Glaring, he readied the claymore again. "I don't care if you use Flames or not; there's no way some cheap fork would beat my claymore" He disappeared and suddenly all Daniela saw were flashes as the two exchanged blows around the gravestones.

Despite the assassin's speed, Hachiro blocked each attack with ease but didn't bother to go on the offense, testing his opponent's skills and almost playing around with the other man. The assassin swung at his head, and Hachiro ducked, throwing out a leg to trip him. He jumped away nimbly as the sword-wielder fell to the floor.

"You…" he snarled, getting to his feet. "I should be asking what you are!"

Hachiro ignored him and instead readied his two weapons.

"Won't answer me, huh? Arrogant little…" the assassin glanced sideways to his original target and back to Hachiro. Formulating a plan, he ran at the bodyguard. Hachiro got ready to counter, but the other suddenly threw something at him that exploded, releasing a cloud of eye-irritating smoke. The assassin changed course, running towards Daniela, claymore raised for the kill.

In flash, he swung his claymore again. Daniela took a few panicked steps back before she tripped and threw her small arms up in front of her, wrenching her eyes shut as she readied herself for the imminent pain. However, she heard the sound of metal on and opened her eyes to steal a peak. Smirking Hachiro twisted his weapon, moving the claymore, which he had caught between two of the prongs, with it. The other lunged, attempting to drive the sword into Hachiro's face, but in a flash, the claymore's blade snapped cleanly in two from the strain. With another quick movement of the arm, Hibari switched the grip on his left weapon and plunged it into the attacker's chest. The man gave a gasp as blood spurted out from his mouth and the wound, the weapon sinking effortlessly into his flesh. He surveyed the damage with shocked eyes before falling backwards in a heap on the floor, the weapon still embedded in his corpse.

"You… you killed him!" Daniela gasped.

Meanwhile, Hachiro was staring at his weapon silently. "Lame… I still can't turn it back to its original size… Oh well." He sighed and threw the weapon at the body, where it joined its partner, sinking in halfway into the dead assassin.

"You… how… trident… Flame?" Daniela stuttered.

"They're called sai," Hachiro told her. "They're weapons that originated in Okinawa."

"I… I see…" she said, looking away.

"What's wrong?" Hachiro looked down and realized that a lot of the blood had splattered onto his clothing; his left sleeve was soaked in the red liquid. "Ah, I have to get this washed… That butler of yours can take care of it. Let's head back." He started walking away.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Daniela called after him as she tried to stand up, only to be met with a piercing pain in her ankle. Hachiro caught her before she managed to add a pair of skinned knees to her twisted ankle. "Hey, wait! I don't need…" she protested when he sighed and lifted her up, a hand under back and the other under her knees.

"So troublesome; I told you not to move from that spot earlier," he said. She looked away, glaring at the trees.

The two didn't speak to each other for a while as Hachiro made his way back to the mansion. Daniela was thoroughly aware of the fact that some of the blood on her bodyguard was soaking into her own clothing, and the damp feeling made her queasy. She searched her brain for a random conversation topic to distract her from the feeling and the smell.

"Hey, why didn't you answer Nico when you first arrived?" she asked him.

"I only converse with those who call me Hibari-san at least once," he replied as if it was a common habit.

"That's… conceited…" she muttered.

"It's not fair that I have to learn Italian when you guys don't have to learn Japanese. Beside's its fun to watch their flustered expressions when I don't answer them." He grinned mischievously.

"What about during battles?" she asked, looking at him.

He stopped, confused. "Why would I need to talk during a battle?"

"They yell out their attacks in books…" Daniela told him, blushing a little from embarrassment. After all, Hachiro had earlier highlighted the fact that she really didn't leave her mansion often.

"Well this isn't a book. Only an idiot would tell his enemy what attack he's using next."

"Oh…" she fell silent again. After a few minutes, she asked, "What does 'idiot' mean?"

Hachiro raised an eyebrow.

---

"Miss Daniela!" Nico yelled out when he saw the two, panicking even more when he saw the blood on Hibari.

"Here," Hachiro handed her over to Nico. The bodyguard yawned. "Send some food up to my room, will you? I'm starved."

"Wait!" the butler called after him, but he had already disappeared up the stairs. Nico turned his attention to Daniela. "Are you hurt?"

"Just my ankle… tripped…" she muttered, looking away.

"What about him?"

"Not at all… It was all from the assassin…"

Sighing, Nico carried Daniela to her quarters.

"Don't ever wander off by yourself again!" he told her as he bandaged her foot. "I was so worried…"

"Of course you'd be. Uncle Fabio would have your head if anything happened to me," she replied.

"Don't you understand?" he suddenly yelled at her, to her surprise. "Ah… excuse me…" He continued wrapping the gauze around her foot silently before continuing. "I've known you since you were five, when your parents took me in. This isn't just a job to me; you're like my little sister." She stared at the top of his head silently. "That's why… I didn't want to mention anything about today… but you have to know, you weren't the only one affected by what happened two years ago. Luciano was my role model and your parents…"

He heard a sniff and looked up to see her crying. He panicked; Daniela never cried, not even during the funeral after the incident two years ago. "Nico… you really did remember…" she said through her tears.

"Yeah… I remember…" he relaxed.

She smiled, attempting to wipe her face with her sleeve. "Thanks…"

"Huh?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing…"

---

Nico knocked on Hachiro's door, a plate of sandwiches balancing on his other hand.

"So where's Daniela-chan?" the bodyguard asked when Nico came in. Hachiro had showered and somehow managed to dig out a set of clean clothing out of his suitcases, which were scattered throughout the room, apparently still in the middle of being unpacked. The water had made his hair slightly less messy, but it was already starting to return to its previous spiky mess; Nico guessed that Hibari had decided to take a nap halfway through unpacking.

"She is resting in her room, and you're supposed to address her by Miss Daniela," Nico told him as he set the tray down on the table in front of the sofas.

"Why? She's younger than me."

"It doesn't matter!"

"Wait, you're also younger than me right? Do you want me to add a –chan to your name too?" he asked, grinning.

"It's only by one year and no!" Nico said, flustered.

"Oh yeah, in that case," he reached over to the sofa, retrieved and then threw a messy bundle of clothing at the butler. "Wash this for me, will you? Thanks."

"Gah! You're impossible!" Nico said as he stormed out with the laundry, not noticing the vast amount of blood on it because Hibari had taken the care to keep the blood stains inside so no one else would get their clothes bloody. He paused at the door, his back still to the bodyguard, and said, "Thanks…" before leaving.

Hachiro stared at the closed door for a moment before walking over to and depositing himself on the sofa. He grabbed a sandwich and took a bite out of it. 'This is pretty good…' he thought to himself as he picked up his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hello? Hibari-san?" the other answered soon after.

"I left some trash in the graveyard. Can you send someone to pick it up?"

"Graveyard? On the first day of your job too… Did you leave both sai there?"

"Yeah. Can you send me another dozen of those packets? I seem to be running low on them."

"So wasteful, using disposable weapons… okay, I've got them tracked; the corpse will be gone in about two hours."

Hachiro stuffed another bite into his mouth. "Next time, warn me ahead of time if you pick up strange signals."

"Ah, sure thing, Hibari-san."

Hachiro hung up, tossing the phone aside on the couch. He yawned again before reaching for another sandwich. 'How long does jetlag last?'

---

… _And that was how the second assassination attempt on me that I know of was resolved. Thus began our strange little life in the middle of the Italian countryside with the new bodyguard from Japan, the dual sai-wielding Hachiro Hibari…_

* * *

Note: Gah… I am working on a character list that I'll throw on Deviant Art (eventually) since doesn't allow submissions like that. Anyways, thanks for reading!

Um… if you don't know what a sai is, Wikipedia it XD. I wanted to choose something traditional for Hibari other than a tonfa and somehow ended up with that weapon…


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_Things became slightly more exciting after Hachiro defeated the claymore fool. Ah, forgive my language, but that man really was a fool or else he wouldn't have died so quickly. There's something called "retreating." I am digressing again. My mind just wanders these days whenever I think back to my childhood; I was so… no… I am still…_

_Ignore that…_

---

"Vacation?" Nico repeated the word, unbelieving. They were in the study room, now a frequent meeting place for the three besides the dinner table. During the other times of the day, Hibari would wander around the grounds or sleep in his room, while household duties and studies kept Nico and Daniela busy, respectively.

"What's wrong with taking a vacation?" Hachiro asked him.

"You've only been here for two months!" Nico exclaimed. Meanwhile, Daniela, who was working on another drawing, watched idly from her desk as the two continued bickering.

"Well you've never taken a vacation, I presume?" the bodyguard asked. Laughing, he ruffled the other teenager's hair, which was an easy enough feat since Nico was shorter. "Don't worry; I'll bring back lots of souvenirs. I've already gotten approval from the Seventh. He's going to send someone to sub for me."

"That's not the point! Even I know that you don't take vacations after only two months of work!" Nico retorted, shoving the other's hand off his head.

"It's called 'maintaining employee happiness and health by giving them random vacations,' Nico-chan."

For a second, the butler looked lost, but then processed the other's words. "No, it's not! And, I told you to stop calling me that!"

Hachiro shrugged. "Oh well? The paperwork's done already."

"Where are you going?" Daniela interrupted.

"Japan. I'm just going to visit my household for a week."

"You've only been gone two months! Don't tell me you're homesick already!" Nico found another subject for ranting.

"Actually, it's been three years."

Nico became quiet. "Oh…" His temper sobered slightly before he remembered an important question. He inwardly reprimanded himself for forgetting to ask. "Wait, who's the substitute?"

"Friedrich from Germany," came the smooth reply.

Half of the servants in the mansion heard a distinct, "Noooooooo!" echo through the walls and windows.

---

"Guten morgen!" Fritz shouted joyfully as soon as he jumped out of the car. He was shorter than Nico, a fact that pleased the butler, but since the German was fifteen, he still had some time to grow. His blond hair was unkempt and the front was past his eyes, quite unlike Hachiro's short spiky mess; Fritz rarely found the patience to go to a saloon since he didn't like sitting still. His wide green eyes were almost catlike and darted here and there to take in the countryside decor.

'Tell me again what this crazy guy is doing here?' Nico thought to himself. 'Not ten seconds have passed, and he's already shouting obscenities…' Nico had only started learning Japanese, having finally mastered English. Italian didn't count since it was his first.

"Is Hibari-san still here?" Fritz darted over and whispered to Nico, who found it odd that the other would even have the capacity to lower his voice like this.

The butler shook his head. "He left about an hour ago, and you…" He crossed his arms, displeased. "You should've been here to see him off. What would we have done if someone had decided to attack us in the last three thousand and six hundred seconds? And don't tell me that we should've shot ketchup at them with your ketchup maker."

"Hey, stop making fun of my ketchup maker. I invented it especially so that you can have all the ketchup you want for your spaghetti. Although…" He put a hand to his chin, trying to remember the exact structure of his invention. "If you switch the knob at the bottom, it'll automatically add gunpowder to the tomatoes and then compress the mixture into bullets that would be useful in combat if you were to run out of ammunition."

"Fritz… What in the world would we do with ketchup bullets! More importantly, we don't use ketchup in spaghetti sauce! That would ruin the flavor… and the texture… and the smell… How could you even suggest…" Nico started ranting.

"Huh? But they're both tomato derivatives… What's the difference?"

"You made the machine! Don't you know what's in ketchup?"

Fritz thought a moment. "Tomatoes?" the other answered innocently. "Excellent vege-fruits, they are."

"Tomatoes are just fruits, Fritz."

"I'd like to think of them as hybrids. I don't like eating vegetables; they lack the sweetness of fruits."

"If you two are done arguing about food, would you come inside already?" a voice called to them.

"Ah, Miss Daniela! I thought you were in the study," Nico said, frowning. After all, she rarely went out to greet guests, and he hadn't informed her that Fritz had arrived. 'Hyper intuition?' he thought.

"I came to greet Fritz," she answered like it was a normal occurrence. Nico racked his brain and only recalled the last and only time Daniela and the madman have spoken: during Fritz's first visit with the ketchup machine.

"Ah, thank you, Miss Daniela," Fritz said, grinning. "This time I brought a large assortment of inventions I wanted to share with your mansion. It's much too traditional for this modern age."

"Wait wait wait," Nico interjected. "You're not going to blow up the mansion with something the size of a key."

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You're luggage…" Nico looked at the black Benz that Fritz came in.

"Oh! You're worried that I've forgotten my luggage!" Fritz concluded.

'No I'm not! I'd rather you forget it!' ran through Nico's head.

"The helicopters will be flying in with my luggage this afternoon," Fritz said, grinning.

"Heli… copters?" Nico repeated slowly. "… as in the plural form, helicopters?"

"Yes, Nico-chan! Can you not hear?" He looked at Daniela before Nico could return. "Ah, I'm sorry Miss Daniela! Let's all go inside and enjoy one of Nico-chan's wonderful cakes! Did you try out that tomato-cake recipe I sent you?"

"Don't call me that!" Nico yelled at him, flustered.

"Ah, but Hibari-san instructed me over the phone…"

'This is going to be a long week…' Nico thought miserably as he headed to the kitchen to fetch the tomato cake and the "normal" one that he had made for Daniela, just in case she did not share Fritz's eccentric tastes.

---

"So what's your real reason for coming?" Nico asked, leaning against the desk and crossing his arms. "I never knew you were a fighter." Around them, Fritz's vast amount of luggage, machinery, and other strange looking objects threatened to suffocate the butler; he wasn't used to such a mess.

"Actually, I am," Fritz replied, grinning. To the other's surprise, that grin and constant carefree demeanor finally fell into a solemn one, which was extremely rare for Fritz. "But that is not the only reason why I came." He lowered his voice but was still audible. "Word hasn't gotten around yet, but they took out two more heirs."

"What? How?" This was definitely something worth knowing about. Nico rarely left the mansion, but he made sure that he was well informed of Vongola's outside happenings.

Fritz shrugged. "Bombs? The two were visiting each other, and the entire mansion complex suddenly went boom. No survivors listed."

"So then now Miss Daniela…"

"It's down to two more. If they go, then…"

"No… it's impossible. Nothing will happen," Nico tried to convince himself.

Fritz shrugged. "It's just a warning. I have to ask you though, have you started learning it?"

"It?"

"Fighting, Nico-chan. One of the most important skills in the mafia… besides talking of course."

"You have to work on your own communication skills," Nico sighed. "And… I do know a little… but… I don't know."

"I see… Well I'd recommend it." He paused. "For security reasons of course, just in case something does come up. Which is why…"

'Oh no, the madman is back…' Nico thought when he saw the expression change on the other.

Fritz reached into one of his suitcases and pulled out a box. "Don't worry; I didn't do anything to it. Hibari-san asked me to special order it."

"Wait, what is the real reason you came late this morning?" Nico asked as he took the box from the other.

"I'm afraid of Hibari-san," he said bluntly. "Open it," he prodded when the butler raised an eyebrow at him.

Sighing, Nico opened to box to find what looked like a small dagger, sheathed.

"It's called a wakizashi, a Japanese dagger. Hibari-san said something about bringing the bigger one later."

"The bigger one? Why a dagger?"

"Maybe because he thinks it's most similar to kitchen knives and it'll be a good start? Then again, he's pretty obsessed with traditional weaponry…"

Nico stared at the wakizashi, unwilling to touch it. "Who the hell here has the ability to train me? And why can't we use guns instead? They're only a thousand times faster."

"Tsk tsk," Fritz grinned. "Don't you know Hibari-san and every other accomplished member of the Varia can easily block bullets from amateurs? Also, you are in the presence of a master tutor."

The other stared at him. "Really?"

"Psyched!" he laughed. "Of course I can't teach you how to use a wakizashi; it's completely different from my weapon of choice."

"Ketchup bullets?" Nico said, raising an eyebrow.

"Close enough," he grinned.

Nico waited a few seconds for an answer, but the other didn't reveal his weapon. "Well?" he pressed on.

"It's a secret!"

"Ugh, I'm going to sleep… goodnight," Nico said, abruptly getting up. His head was pounding, and he'd decided that he'll deal with this guy tomorrow.

"Oh, that soon? Oyasuminasai!Gute Nacht! Buona notte! Goodnight! Bake me more of that ketchup cake later!" Fritz's chain of goodnight's followed Nico as he rain out of the room, hands over his ears.

---

"Fritz, irons have already been invented," Nico said when the other took out a clothing iron from his case of "inventions." The butler had convinced the temporary bodyguard to conduct his demonstrations outside in the garden in case anything exploded. He'd rather have the garden than the mansion blow up.

"Maybe you should point that away from us…" Daniela muttered, staring at the household item with a strange expression.

"Wow! You've already figured out what it is?" Fritz exclaimed gleefully.

"I have a hunch…" she muttered.

"It's going to shoot out ketchup bullets!" Nico finished for her.

"That's not what I was going to say," she sighed. "Continue." To Nico's surprise, the word came out more like a request than the commanding tone he was accustomed to.

"Okay, so…" He pointed the tip of the iron with the metal part facing the ground at a tree. "I just suddenly realized how defenseless one is when they are doing household chores, such as ironing clothing. Therefore, I invented the perfect remedy."

"An iron…" Nico muttered.

Fritz ignored him. "Behold! When that assassin appears in front of you, all you have to do is press this button…" he clicked something on the bottom of the handle and a blade sprung out from the tip of the iron, extending a few meters or so before hitting the tree. "A hidden blade that extends until it hits something! Now you can both defend yourself from assassins and your clothing from being burned at the same time!" The other two were silent for a few seconds.

"Are you crazy? What would happen if I accidentally pressed the button during my ironing?" Nico yelled.

Fritz gasped dramatically. "What kind of butler would have such poor control over his fingers?" That comment made Nico close his mouth immediately, and he twitched, trying to control his fingers from strangling the younger boy.

Daniela, on the other hand, chuckled.

'Ah, it's rare to see her laugh,' Nico thought, relaxing a little.

"I see that this invention pleases you. I will send one to you as soon as I am finished perfecting it," he said, making a show of bowing. He pressed the button again, and the blade retracted into the iron.

"What other crazy inventions did you bring?" Nico asked him.

"Ah, I have been pretty busy lately, so I didn't bring as much as I had liked," Fritz said, sighing.

"Your room was full of boxes…"

"They are experiments in process, Nico-chan. Anyway," he reached into his case and began tossing out random objects. "Where is it?" Daniela and Nico watched as a series of pens, pencils, and what looked like books flew past them, hitting the tree from before. They suddenly turned their gazes back at the tree and realized that each object was still at the same spot where they had hit the tree.

"Fritz… maybe you should watch what you're throwing out," Daniela told him. Nico noted that she had taken a few steps back.

"What have you done to all this stuff?" Nico said, staring at the ruined tree and the various items stapled to it by knives that had suddenly sprang out on impact.

"Oh, don't you recognize them? They're all the little things found in Miss Daniela's study, each equipped with a blade. When an assassin sneaks up on you when you're getting a book, you can drop a book on him. When they come through the window, you can throw the pens. When…"

"Is this really necessary?" Nico asked. "And why have you been spending so much time on weapons?"

"True… I never noticed that I have been making more weapons lately."

"What? Even you don't know?" Nico and Daniela looked at each other. 'So she really does thin he's crazy too!' Nico thought happily to himself.

"Ah… here it is!" Fritz said happily as he took out a cylindrical shaped the size of a baseball. "I call it…" he threw it into a plain patch of grass. Upon impact, the garden exploded with a red sticky substance, covering the three in it. "… The ketchup bomb." In the middle of the mess, the cylinder began turning and transformed into a miniature fountain, spurting out ketchup. "The advanced model also functions as a garden decoration."

The three turned around when they heard a scream behind them; one of the female servants had decided to visit the garden to trim some of the flowers. "You're… you're covered in… bl…"

"It's ketchup," the three said in unison; Fritz was the only one with a happy tone to his speaking.

During dinner, after the three had finished washing up and Nico had made Fritz single-handedly clean up every last drop of ketchup from the entire garden, the butler began his solemn lecturing. "What were you thinking? What the hell would we do with a ketchup bomb?" he exploded, not even noticing that he had added the H-word inside his sentence. Daniela made a mental note to herself to ask Hibari what it meant when he returned as she placed some of the steak in her mouth. They were supposed to have spaghetti tonight, but Nico couldn't bring himself to go near the tomato sauce.

"It was an experiment," Fritz said, grinning. "Looks like it worked."

"What were you testing?" Daniela asked him. If anything, she had been amused by the entire situation; it wasn't everyday that she got covered in ketchup.

"Ah… human perceptions of ketchup."

She smiled, "I see…" Nico looked at her; a little worry crept into his eyes.

'Does she suspect?'

The butler stormed into the madman's room later that evening. "What's up with today?"

"She has to know her place, Nico-chan," Fritz told him.

"She's only ten!"

"Oh come on, I'm fifteen."

"You're a genius! That multiplies your age by two!"

"And she's already witnessed more than one death. There's no reason why she shouldn't learn how to use a few of these harmless little weapons," Fritz continued as if he didn't hear him.

"You sliced my apple tree apart!" Nico continued randomly.

"It was for demonstration."

"You… you wanted her to take interest in knives… why?"

Fritz shrugged. "The Seventh wanted her to know that the possibility of her becoming an heir is not impossible. I thought she should see a little more fighting related things."

"So he sent you as a tutor?"

"No, I am just a messenger. If one more heir goes, then we will send a tutor; Daniela will have to learn at least some type of fighting. It's essential for members of the mafia to learn how to protect themselves."

Nico sighed, trying to calm himself down. "And your inventions?"

"The other Family has been getting restless lately. You'll have to have more weapons in the mansion than just kitchen knives if they decide to go after Miss Daniela before the other two. Even Hibari-san can't keep track of an entire household."

A beeping sound from one of the computers Fritz had brought along distracted them. The German hopped over to the machine, reading the email he just received. "I see…" he muttered.

"See what?"

"Ah, it is time for me to sleep! Felice notte!" He pushed Nico out the door and closed it quickly.

'What was that about?' the butler thought as he turned around and walked away. He heard panicked typing behind the door.

**---**

"Ah,Guten Morgen!" Fritz said when he saw Nico.

"What is that?" Nico replied, nodding to the object the other was holding.

"Oh, nothing special," he said and began walking away.

"What was that email about?" Nico prodded.

Fritz stopped, pondering. "Go with Daniela to the study room balcony tonight, and bring your wakizashi. Please be alert, will you?"

---

"What's going on?" Daniela asked, bored, as she leaned on the marble rail overlooking the courtyard. Beneath them, they saw Fritz walk out onto the dirt driveway, carrying the strange object Nico had seen that morning.

"Come out!" Fritz called out. "I know you're there."

Nico and Daniela gasped when they saw they saw a shadow that seemed to merge away from the trees. Fritz grinned and swung his arm. The object detached and reattached at a few points, forming a long stick with a distinct blade at the end: a voulge. He twirled it expertly and pointed it at his opponent, who took out a massive ax. He struck.

"What is Fritz doing? That man's at least seven times bigger than him!" Daniela gasped. She turned around to get help.

"No…" Nico stopped her.

"What? Unhand me!" she demanded.

"No… Fritz wants you to watch this…" he muttered.

"What? Why?" She looked back at the scene with wide eyes. The larger man swung his ax down at Fritz, who dodged and whacked the other with the metal shaft of the voulge. Unfazed, he unearthed his ax from the dirt and swung again, missing Fritz by a hair's breadth. However, the boy tripped and stumbled a little while the other took the chance and brought the ax down with full force. Fritz caught the ax with the shaft of his voulge, deadlocked in a match of strength that he was already losing as the ax began to overpower him, forcing him back.

"Fritz!" Daniela screamed.

"You should be more worried about yourself," a voice said behind him. Nico drew out his wakizashi and kept Daniela in back of him. Suddenly, they heard an explosion behind them and saw a mass of blood where the two fighters once were.

"Fritz!" Daniela yelled again, now hysterical with fright.

Nico turned his attention back at the immediate danger, clutching the wakizashi tightly. He ran at the man, who easily knocked him away. Ignoring the girl, who had fallen to the floor shaking, for the moment, the assassin walked over to Nico and picked up the wakizashi. "Hm… you've never killed anyone before, have you?" he asked. "Let me show you… how it looks before I show you how it feels…"

"No!" Nico yelled as the man turned around with the swiftness of a jaguar and lunged at Daniela, wakizashi ready.

---

_The sight of blood… what a strange and beautiful substance. Have you ever seen it under the moonlight? It is like ambrosia: something of life… and death…_

* * *

Note: As usual, thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_Hey… do you remember that time? Oh wait, I am not writing to you… Forgive me; I am hallucinating again… I still can't believe what happened afterwards…_

---

Daniela slowly opened an eye and saw blood; blood that dripped slowly onto the marble from the assassin's torso, pierced by what looked like a bloody stick attached to a man-shaped blood monster. Then again, the blood smelled suspicious, almost sweet.

'Ketchup?' That thought completely knocked aside the fact that Fritz had just killed a person in front of her. It didn't help when said person started talking as if he didn't have a hole in his chest.

"Fritz…" he choked out, shaking. Finally, unable to contain himself, he burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. "No! Why… why did you bring that bloody thing with you?"

"I forgot I left the ketchup bomb in my pocket," Fritz said, chuckling nervously. "And hey, don't blame me now; you're the one who messed up first."

"Wait… what's going on? Who are you?" Nico exclaimed, standing up.

The man melted into an indigo flame before disappearing completely, his form still shaking with laughter. "It was going so well until that bloody bomb of yours exploded…" they heard the same laughter behind them as the man stepped out of the shadows, this time not stained by a fatal wound.

"You're the one who messed up first! How in the world did you expect them to believe that I could stop an ax that big? You should have used a smaller man…" Fritz began.

"Don't make fun of my illusions! And that is no way to talk to your teacher!" the man retorted, trying to catch his breath. "How did you expect me to keep up my illusions if you were going to cover half the area with ketchup?"

"Admit it! That was the only flaw! My ketchup bomb can really be used in battle!"

"In your dreams! The little lady recognized that it was ketchup instantly!"

Nico quietly snuck over to Daniela and led her back into the house as tutor and student continued to argue, picking up the wakizashi along the way. Their voices were still heard outside as Nico closed the window on them and went downstairs to lock the front door.

The next morning, Fritz and Alfredo, the name of his home tutor, found themselves in the study room, having slept outside the night prior and without breakfast.

"And that's the gist of it," Fritz finished nervously.

"So… you guys staged an assassination attempt, threw weapons around in the garden, and exploded two ketchup bombs… just to tell me that I should be getting ready just in case another heir kicks the bucket?" Daniela asked, smiling sweetly.

"Uh… yeah… but it was all Alfredo's idea!" Fritz said.

"What? You're the one with the crazy ideas! My only job is to teach you how to fight, which, may I remind you, still needs a lot of work. Your swing last night…"

"Ahem…" Nico interrupted their bickering.

"I understand," Daniela said, surprising them.

"You do?" Fritz asked hopefully to confirm that she was really not mad at them.

She nodded. "You're excused now. Mr. Alfredo, you may stay in one of our guest rooms until Fritz leaves."

"Thank you, Miss Daniela," Alfredo said, bowing to her before pulling Fritz by the ear out of the room.

"Wait, why didn't you…" Nico began but stopped as Daniela walked past him towards the door.

"I'm tired," she announced. "Bring lunch to my room later; I don't want to go to lessons today."

"Of course…" The door closed behind her.

---

"Fritz! You're being irresponsible again!" Alfredo sighed as his student continued to throw the remainder of his luggage into the helicopters like a little working ant running back and forth from the mansion. He followed his student, not offering to lend a hand. "As a bodyguard, you are not to leave your station until Hibari-san returns."

"It's fine!' Fritz said cheerfully.

"Fritz!" Nico yelled to him. "At least stay until you see his car this time!"

"No way! He'll catch me before I get past the gates!"

"I'd rephrase that answer if I were you," a voice said behind them.

"Ah, welcome back Hibari-san," Fritz said, not turning around. Suddenly, in a flash, the two had drawn their weapons, Hachiro's sai catching the pole of Fritz's voulge.

"Um, please refrain from killing my student," Alfredo said, waving his hand carelessly. "I'll just go put my things in the car now that you're here…" He left Nico, Fritz, and Hibari alone as he speed-walked to the house.

"You said that you were just going to deliver the message, not attack my charge!" Hibari said with venom on his tongue.

"I… I thought that… a hands-on demonstration would be… be best…" Fritz stammered.

"Fritz… the Seventh's message was 'be prepared for the worst,' not 'assassins will attack and kill you all if you don't train'! He specifically said that he doesn't want to send a tutor unless it was completely necessary!"

"It's… it's a possibility!"

Hibari knocked the voulge aside and pointed his sai at Fritz's throat. "Are you questioning my ability?"

"Ah! No… no…" Fritz said, shaking his head vigorously.

Hibari moved the sai. "Just go," he said as he walked past them to the house.

"Ah…" Fritz sat down on the floor, sighing. "Scary…"

"Why did you resort to that anyway?" Nico asked him.

"Why didn't you ask that earlier?" Fritz returned.

"Miss Daniela…"

Fritz dejectedly sighed again. "I was hoping that you would have suddenly displayed a prodigal affinity for fighting, but I was wrong. I'm disappointed…"

"Well sorry for disappointing you," the butler snapped.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean that!" He looked away. "It's just that… everyone keeps on expecting all these things from me… I mean… just because I can blow up a few things with a bottle of ketchup and gunpowder and hack into any system I want doesn't mean I can fight against someone bigger than me with an ax."

"Wait so that guy from yesterday…"

"Master Alfredo saved me from that guy two years ago during the attacks. I asked him to train me, but… I haven't made too much progress. Only managed to do fancy swings with my voulge. Strength wise… no improvement."

"Someone like you is supposed to win with wits, not strength… where'd you get the idea that you have to physically overpower your opponent? You're not even taller than me!" Nico sighed, shaking his head. "Now I'm disappointed."

However, Fritz seemed to have disregarded the last comment and cheered up a little. "You don't have to physically overpower your opponents?"

"No…"

"Oh… that's why Master Alfredo kept on giving me that look during sparring sessions…" Fritz grinned. "Thank you! I shall try that next time I train with Master Alfredo!" He stood up, brushing off his clothes. "I must hurry and pack!"

'… He seriously didn't just say that…' Nico thought as he watched Fritz run off.

---

Hachiro knocked on the door lightly, ready to barge in if he didn't receive an answer within the time frame of five seconds.

"Come in…" he heard Daniela say almost immediately. He went in to see the Vongola lying on the sofa with a book over her face; one would have thought she was sleeping if she hadn't just told him to come in.

"If you read like that, you'll end up wearing glasses," he said to her. Walking up to sofa, he saw the word across the book's cover. "Why are you reading a dictionary?"

"To get my mind off of things," she said, not moving the volume off her face.

"Why?"

"I'm apprehensive," she answered.

"Ah, what an advanced word for you."

"I only read till B."

He raised an eyebrow and chose to ignore that. "There's no reason to be apprehensive."

"Easy for you to say…" He could imagine the pout she must have on her face.

"If you keep on worrying about the future, then you'll be unable to do anything in the present. Nico told me about you these past few days, not being able to concentrate on your lessons and not going to meals with the others."

She didn't respond.

"Does it bother you that much?" he asked her.

"I just… don't want to see any more people I know die," she replied hestitantly.

"People die every day. Old age, illness, suicide, murder, me…"

She smiled under her book. "I know."

He turned around to leave. "I have to go get my stuff from the helicopter. It should be here by now. I'll see you at dinner."

"Okay," she agreed. He smiled to himself at his success and left.

Daniela removed the book from her face, pondering.

---

After dinner, Daniela and Nico waited in one of the drawing rooms as Hibari went to fetch his "mountain of souvenirs."

"What do you think he bought?" Nico asked Daniela. He was still amazed how easily Hibari had been able to convince the girl to eat with them, having failed himself the past few days.

"Japanese ketchup?"

Hibari came into the room before Nico was able to answer, dragging one of his longer suitcases that was almost as tall as shoulders. He placed it gently on the floor, opened the zipper, and began shuffling through its contents.

"Wasabi, makisu, sushi cookbook, chopsticks…" he muttered as he took out each item.

"Why are all these…" Nico muttered.

"You are going to learn how to make Japanese food," Hachiro said bluntly to Nico before the other could finish that thought, smiling.

"Wait, are you going to teach me?"

"No, if I ever cooked, I'd poison you…" Hachiro took out the last of the Japanese cooking utensils, which formed a small pile on the carpet, and reached deeper in the suitcase, moving a few things around. He took out a sword and eyed it carefully before offering to Nico. "I will be teaching you how to use a katana. You will be making me Japanese food as payment."

"Huh?" Nico said half-way into taking the sword from the bodyguard. "Wait! I never agreed to that!"

Hibari cocked his head to the side, smirking. "Oh really? Then I guess I'll just send these things back then…" he reached for the cookbook, but Nico stopped him.

"No!"

"Yes?"

"I'll… I'll learn swordsmanship; just let me have that cookbook."

"Agreed." He smirked and turned back to the suitcase.

"Okay, for Daniela-chan…" He took out a kimono, staring at it oddly. "Uh… maybe you'll have to wait a few years; Haha (1) misheard me again when I told her the size…" The kimono was covered with a silk cherry blossom pattern but was made for a young adult, not a ten-year old.

"Um… thank you…" she took it, studying the pattern.

"And the rest of the souvenirs, because I said I'd bring back a mountain but was too lazy to pick a thousand different things…" Hibari took the case and turned it upside as a bunch of packages fell out into a giant heap around him. "Japanese snacks."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure they aren't for you?"

"Nope, I have another ten cases in my room."

---

"What's this about?" Daniela asked as Hibari entered her room, a book in his hand. She was just about to turn off the lights to go to sleep.

"As an apology for Fritz's behavior, I'll read you a bedtime story. I heard some kids are really into this kind of thing," he told her, dragging a chair over.

"I'd rather not hear about bunnies and rainbows before I sleep…" she said, crossing her arms defiantly.

"I brought it with me from Japan," he cut her off. "It's 'Romeo and Juliet' by Shakespeare."

She raised an eyebrow, her expression lightening a little. "Isn't that English?"

He smiled. "We studied it in English class several years ago. I thought that it would be better here instead at home rotting with the rest of my old belongings."

"Ah, so are you going to read it to me in Italian? I don't understand English."

"I'll read it to you in all three languages eventually."

"Huh? Why? What's the third language?"

"Japanese. And for your information, knowing more than one language is important for a mafia boss to make connections," he explained.

She snorted. "Hibari-san, I'm eighth in line. There's no way I'll be the next Vongola boss. That is no way to talk to a ten year old."

"First it's apprehension and now it's denial?" he teased her.

"I'll reconsider it when the time comes."

"You puzzle me sometimes," he sighed.

"Start."

"Pardon?"

"Start the story already. I'm curious." She leaned back into the covers, waiting for him to start reading.

---

"So, what did you think?" he asked, a tiny hint of curiosity in his voice. Frankly, Hachiro was surprised that the girl stayed up through the Italian reading.

"… Romeo was stupid…" she pouted.

"Ah, what a mouth."

"I'm serious! He should've known that Juliet was still alive!"

"Well… that's what makes it a tragedy."

"Stupid…" she repeated, frowning.

"What about Juliet?" he asked her.

"She should've just run away."

"It was her choice to drink the potion."

"Why make things so complicated? She's also stupid."

Hachiro chuckled. "Ah, go to sleep already," he yawned. "I'm tired."

"Read me Hamlet tomorrow."

"Isn't this language too complex for you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You can work on paraphrasing for me then when I don't understand."

"What? Oh, fine! It's good practice for me anyway."

She smirked and pulled the covers over here. "Oyasuminasai, Hibari-san."

"When did you learn that?" He stared at her but she had her back to him and the lamp. "Oyasuminasai," he told her before turning off the light on his way out.

'She probably learned it from Fritz…"

---

… _and that was how I was introduced to Shakespeare and the idiots Romeo and Juliet. What is wrong with those literary critics calling "Romeo and Juliet" the "greatest love story of all time?" He didn't even know her! Fools…_

* * *

(1) "Haha" = mother in Japanese

Note: Thank you for reading! Reviews are always welcome! Oh, and by now, there should be crappy sketches of Nico, Fritz, and Hachiro on my deviantart so you can go look them up. I kind of drew them on scratch paper and during lecture ha ha! There's a link to my deviantart on my profile (I update on first and then post chapters on deviantart a little before the next new chapter, so check on first for releases).

Also, I really don't have anything against "Romeo and Juliet," but it really sucks how they almost made it and then got hasty and killed themselves. I like "Hamlet" a lot more though ha ha! Anyways, thanks again!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_I don't think I have much time left… I need to finish this. There are still so many things I haven't written yet for him. For the one this is meant for… one that does not yet exist in this world… Don't fly away without me… wait…_

_(The writing changed.) Excuse me, she is getting delusional again. Allow me…_

---

Nico stood in the middle of the forest, eyes and ears alert and sensitive to any signs of movement. He kept his hands to his side as instructed, instead of on his katana. The wakizashi hung below the larger blade, semi-hidden from other eyes. A leaf fell; he drew his katana and swung, slicing the object cleanly in half.

'Crap…' he thought as he readied his katana, holding it in front of him in a defensive stance. A few more leaves were thrown off the branches by the wind, but this time he managed to pay no mind to them. Finally, he whirled around and swung again, this time hitting metal.

"You still need a little work on distinguishing between a plant and a human," Hachiro said, smirking. "And…" he raised the second sai up to Nico's throat. "You left yourself completely open to my other weapon." However, in a flash, Nico unsheathed the dagger and effectively knocked Hibari's sai away from his face. Before the butler could do anything, the body guard had already jumped back and disappeared into the trees.

"Adapt to your surroundings." The voice seemed to come from all around him.

Nico closed his eyes, trying to sense the other's movement. He could almost picture the exact spot where Hibari was going to charge when suddenly…

"Hey! What's for breakfast?" Daniela asked as a katana stopped several inches from her neck, blocked by a sai.

"Daniela-chan, you're not supposed to come out here when we're training," Hachiro sighed as Nico shakily withdrew his katana.

"What… what time is it?" he asked, trying to calm his panicked breathing.

"It's already ten. Don't you two ever get hungry?" she frowned.

"Well… yeah I was starting to feel hungry…" Nico contemplated.

"Really? Well, I already ate this morning," Hachiro said.

"What? I thought not eating was part of the training! You said not to eat before!" he lamented.

Hachiro raised an eyebrow. "Of course you shouldn't eat before training. You'll get indigestion."

"Then you…"

"I ate an hour prior."

"Oh…"

"Can you go make some food now?" Daniela cut in.

"Okay okay!" Nico sheathed his swords and followed the other two, who had already started walking back to the mansion.

"Why are you eating again?" Nico roared at Hibari, who had joined them for the brunch consisting of spaghetti with a tomato sauce derived from the ketchup produced by Fritz's ketchup maker; they had run out of spaghetti sauce earlier that week and the renewal supplies had not arrived yet.

Hibari shrugged. "It's free food," he said in the middle of a bite of spaghetti, the noodles hanging from his mouth.

"Ah! Don't talk and eat at the same time!" Nico yelled at him. "You get free food anyway; sneaking midnight snacks up to your room…"

"I'm complimenting your food; those midnight snacks are always your leftover cooking," Hachiro answered, taking a sip out of the green tea he had prepared himself. After his trip to Japan, the bodyguard had tea during every meal even when the food and liquids didn't seem to mix.

"What kind of compliment is that? Don't you still have those ten cases of Japanese snacks?"

"I'm down to two."

"How come you never get fat?"

"I exercise, you know. What kind of bodyguard would I be if I couldn't follow my prey into the next room because I'll get stuck in the doorway?" He paused, thinking. "Come to think about it, you've improved more at cooking than fighting the past two years."

"Don't change the subject!" Nico snapped.

"Oh, but he is coming soon. You have to prepare yourself."

"What? No! Tell Fritz to stay in Germany!" Nico panicked.

"Not Fritz." This caught Daniela's attention. Over the past two years, she had become accustomed to the two's constant bickering and enjoyed sitting idly to the side listening instead of adding her own comments unless something struck her curiosity.

"Who then?" Nico asked.

"Dirk."

"That's even worse! Why does Dietrich want to visit anyway?" the butler exploded.

"Who's Dietrich?" Daniela cut in.

"Fritz's little brother," Hibari answered. "He's your age. I met him once. Charming fellow… nothing like Fritz. I would have thrown him out the window if there weren't so many people around during that party."

"So the rumors were true…" Nico lamented.

Hibari looked at him. "So you were making assumptions about Dirk just because a few of us commented on his behavior?"

"Does every person that I've talked to count as a few?" Nico snapped.

"Since you two never seem to leave the mansion, yes." Hachiro smirked. "But nevertheless, this should be quite the refreshing experience. Daniela-chan, I would advise you to take extra care around Dirk. He's not the easiest guy to get along with."

"I'll keep that in mind…" she muttered as Nico continued to eat his food, slurping with an irritated glare at his mentor.

"Does he fight?" Daniela asked Hachiro.

"You'll see…" he replied, smiling carelessly.

---

All of the servants working outside and near the windows looked up when they heard a huge roar echo throughout the complex. It escalated, becoming louder and louder until when suddenly, a black Lamborghini Murcielago sped out from the canopy of trees, turning sharply into the driveway and halting with a screech right in front of the walkway to the door. After a moment, its doors rose smoothly, and a little version of Fritz got out from the passenger's seat, looking indifferently around him. Then again, he really looked nothing like Fritz. Other than the facial features and eye and hair color, Dietrich had his hair neatly cut and carried himself with an air of superiority, despite the fact that he was only twelve. His eyes were green, like Fritz's, but didn't carry that wide, constant curious look to them.

His chauffeur closed the doors and drove away as a row of other expensive cars that didn't carry much drove in with his luggage.

"Welcome," Nico said, bowing.

"Where's my room?" Dietrich asked curtly, straightening his cuffs.

'What's wrong with Fritz and his family?' Nico thought. "This way… Please follow me."

They entered the house just as Daniela was about to descend the stairs.

"Your garden needs work. Two of the trees were over-trimmed. The front door needs polishing again, and I must say, you need a new wardrobe," Dietrich said to her, not bothering to look her in the eyes. Indeed, Daniela preferred plainer dresses to the more elaborate ones that were hard to move in, but her normal clothing were always from famous designers, not that she cared. However, having someone her age insult her like this infuriated her. She was, after, beginning to kind of take notice of her appearance, preferring to look clean even though she cared little for fashion.

"What brings you here, Dietrich?" she responded instead of raging at him. Hachiro had asked her to attempt learning how to deal with such people.

"It's 'Master Dietrich' to you," he replied. "And for your information, I am visiting you only because you are third in line for Vongola. Otherwise, I wouldn't even bother traveling to a shack such as yours."

"I see." She smiled. "Then I'd advise you to watch your mouth while you're here. Merely visiting doesn't necessary build good relations." She turned around and walked back to her study before Dietrich could say anything.

"How dare she! Visiting like this is a gesture of friendship," Dietrich muttered under his breath. "She should be honored that I would even bother coming!"

'Wait a second; he's just as airheaded as Fritz, isn't he… That's definitely not a logical conclusion…' Nico thought as he continued to lead the young German to his quarters.

Meanwhile, Daniela entered her study to find Hachiro casually sitting on the desk reading a book.

"Can't you sit on the sofas for once?" she asked him, glaring. After all, she did use that desk for drawing.

"You got fed up with Dirk that fast?" he replied, only turning a page on his book in response to her request to get off the desk.

"He's… a jerk," she wrinkled up her nose in disgust.

"Ah, you are learning how to incorporate minor vulgar words into your language already. I am so proud of you," he replied, teasing her a little. "Is that how a lady should speak?"

"I learned it from you, you impossible excuse for a sensible bodyguard," she retorted.

"Does that mean I am sensible?"

"Not at all." She smirked. Hachiro almost laughed at how she sometimes mimicked his little quirks, which he was fully aware of and never intended to fix. "So how's his fighting skills?" she asked him.

"Are you planning to get into a fight?" The idea interested him; Daniela had never done much in terms of physical fighting. They occasionally fought with words, and he admitted that she was learning fairly quickly despite attempting multiple times to skip lessons, which she claimed were boring.

"No, but at the rate things are going, I might. And," she sat on the sofa, stretching a little, "I guess I shouldn't be too concerned. After all, you will be performing your duties as usual, I presume?"

"Ah, I was planning on having Nico and him get into a fight, but we shall see."

"How is Nico doing anyway?" she asked him, picking up a book. She doubted that she'll be having lessons today, seeing that Nico would have his hands full with the other brat and forget to force Daniela to go to her lessons. She on the other hand, didn't want to waste her time bickering with Fritz's rude little brother.

"He's improving slowly. He's probably caught up to Fritz by now, not that either of them are good enough to take on a real fighter."

"And Dirk's?" She turned to the front page of the book, a copy of "Hamlet" in Italian.

"He's the fighting genius of the two brothers. Fritz is more of a thinking type, after all."

She laughed. "Yes, he is. Oh, before I forget…" Leaving the book open on the sofa so that she could return to it, Daniela walked over to her desk and shuffled through its contents before removing a small cylindrical object.

Hachiro stared at it for a second before she pocketed it.

"As a last resort," she told him.

---

Everyone watched Dirk with apprehension as he delicately placed the food in his mouth with a fork. A slight blush crept over his face as he looked down at the dish. 'This is… pretty good…'

"I thought you did something to his food…" Daniela whispered to Nico as Hachiro watched the entire scene with a little grin on his face. Dietrich was wolfing down his food like a starved animal.

"I don't get it! That should have increased the amount of spiciness by ten!" Nico whispered back.

"Thank you for the meal," Dirk said quickly as soon as he was done and sped out of the dining room, leaving the remaining three to eat in silence.

"This sucks…" Nico muttered to himself.

"Ah, I forgot to mention to you. Dirk loves spicy food as much as Fritz likes ketchup and sweets," Hibari said casually. "If you really wanted to disgust him, you should have just left the dish as it was with maybe a spoonful or two of sugar."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Nico exploded at him.

"I wanted to have a nice meal. You two can fight as much as you want afterwards," he replied, cutting the steak.

"Selfish little…"

"I'm still taller than you," he reminded the butler.

Nico grumbled and chomped down on another piece of meat.

---

Daniela found Dirk on the balcony later staring at the scenery below him. It was a cloudy night and the moon was obscured from view by the fluffy objects in the sky. "Don't come into my presence wearing rags," he told her without turning around.

"I can go wherever I like in my own mansion," she returned, walking towards the other side of the balcony, well away from him. Daniela had just finished showering and wanted to take a walk on her favorite balcony before retiring.

"You don't even deserve to live in this pathetic little mansion. The only thing that keeps you here is the fact that your father was the Seventh's brother."

"Then what gives you the right to come here?" she asked him, her eyes gleaming dangerously at the darkness below.

"I…" he stopped, realizing that he was more or less in similar situation in regards to blood. "I'll show you what makes me different from you…" Daniela turned around to see him holding a golf club encased in green flames. "Unlike you or my dear older brother, I have the strength to become the next Vongola boss. That is my reason for visiting: to show them how capable I am of the position." He ran at her with his golf club raised. Her hand shook slightly when she saw him speeding towards her, but she stood her ground. Nico, who had been watching the scene from behind the window, threw the window doors open and blocked the golf club with his katana with a full blown swing.

"Oh, a sword?" Dirk said, smirking at Nico's surprised face.

'What's going on? That should have sliced his golf club in half… it's at last partly wooden…' Nico thought.

"Thunder Flames: solidification," a voice said behind them: Hachiro.

"You left out the best part," Dirk grinned viciously and sent a wave of electricity through his weapon, which propagated into the katana, making Nico drop it in a panic. Dietrich struck again, making the butler jump away and unsheathe his wakizashi.

"I have no time for fighting weaklings like you." He moved around Nico and headed towards Daniela.

"You will never become the next Vongola boss," she said, making him stop in his tracks.

Dirk laughed at the illogical aspects of what she just said. "What makes you say that? You are in position to threaten me. Even your little butler won't be able to stop me."

She shrugged. "Well if you get within ten feet of me with that golf club, Hibari-san will kick your ass."

'Oh crap, I forgot he was here…' Dirk looked towards the window and saw that the bodyguard was causally tossing what looked like a toy fork up and down in one hand.

"Miss Daniela! What kind of language is that?" Nico interjected, picking up his katana and running in front of her just in case Dirk was going to try anything.

"Dietrich," she continued, the initial fear leaving her eyes. "Why do you want to become the next Vongola boss?"

"Fritz… I won't be overshadowed by him… so that's why…" he prepared his weapon again, infusing more of the green flames onto it. "I will eliminate you." He took a step and a hand connected with the back of his neck. "Ah…" His vision began blurring…

_The clouds parted, revealing the soothing rays of the moon pouring onto the balcony. Dietrich squinted, trying to stay awake. He saw three people: the butler, the bodyguard, and a strange beautiful creature with long dark hair and captivating golden eyes. She was dressed in the most dazzling embroidered dress he had ever seen… Before he could say anything to this creature, his world went red…_

---

Dietrich opened his eyes to find himself in his bed with the rays of morning shining through a crack in the curtains. 'Was it all… a dream?' he thought and looked down at his clothes, which were covered in a strange red sticky substance.

"Oh, you're awake," Nico said as he entered, holding a tray filled with breakfast. "I figured you'd rather wash yourself, so I just dumped you in your bed after Hibari-san knocked you out."

"I saw… the most beautiful girl in my dreams last night…" Dietrich muttered, blushing furiously. "Please don't tell me that was…"

"Weren't you attempting to take the position of Vongola boss by killing Miss Daniela?"

Dietrich stopped. "I was, wasn't I?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh…"

'Then that confirms…' He shook his head, blushing furiously.

'Idiot,' Nico thought.

"Wait…so what's this…" Dietrich looked at his shirt.

"Ah, Miss Daniela accidentally activated Fritz's ketchup bomb right after you fainted."

---

"Are you leaving already?" Daniela asked, leaning against one of the pillars on the second floor with her arms crossed. Today she had deliberately chosen another not-so-plain dress after seeing the golf-club wielder's split second expression before he fainted the night before when the moon bathed them all in light. Dietrich stared at her.

He caught himself. "Of course I'm leaving! Why would I want to stay any longer than I should in this dump?" He stormed out of the mansion.

"Does she know?" Hachiro asked Nico as they watched the Lamborghini's drive away.

Nico shrugged. "I decided it'd be best not to tell her."

"What an idiot."

"Dirk?"

"Yes."

"Oh, by the way… were you the one teaching Miss Daniela bad words?" Nico decided to bring the subject up.

"Me?" Hachiro asked innocently, fingering a little sai.

"Nevermind…"

"You did well last night." Hibari said, making Nico look at him. "Your Flame is blue, I see…"

"Wait? What do you mean?"

"I saw a flicker of your Flame when you dropped the katana. You must have summoned it unconsciously to keep the electricity from shocking you."

"Re… Really?" Nico stammered, excited.

"Hm… so you can summon your Flames in life threatening situations…" Hachiro said, putting a hand up to his chin in comtemplation.

Fear immediately replaced his excitement. "What are you thinking?"

"Oh nothing… just planning your next training session," Hibari grinned.

---

_Oh she's awake, I'll give this back to her then._

_(The writing changed back to the original script.) I'm sorry… I'll have to rest a while longer before continuing…_

* * *

Note: Okay, I'm going to start listing people's ages here whenever they change, because I'm starting to lose track ha ha. So as of this chapter, their ages are now the following: Daniela-12, Nico-19, Hachiro-20, Fritz-17, and Dirk-12 (yes, he fights with a golf club).

Thanks for reading! The next update will most likely be in a week, after I murder my Biology presentation and mid-term and whatever they suddenly throw at me… Spring Break!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_I remember the first time I left Italy. I was twelve, and apparently Uncle Fabio was getting impatient with my refusal to attempt at any outside contact. It was spring that year, maybe about a month after Dirk visited. As usual, it started with Hachiro…_

---

"What is this?" Nico asked as he threw an envelope at Hachiro, who rarely got mail. He usually received all his information through the phone or via computer. Of course, every now and then, a helicopter would fly down to drop off a few things, but that didn't count as mail.

"Ah, it's here," the bodyguard said as he tore open the letter and took out a few pieces of paper. "Plane tickets to Japan…"

"What? Again?"

"I ran out of snacks," he said simply.

Nico gaped at him. He was certain that Hibari had said that there were still two suitcases worth of food last month and that the bodyguard had finished eight of them in the time period of approximately two years. "How did you run out of snacks…" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"I ate them?" Hibari answered, confused.

"But you said there were two boxes left…"

"I was hungry?" he offered another explanation.

"Nevermind…"

Hachiro shrugged. "Whatever you say…" At that moment, Nico finally realized that the Japanese held more than one piece of paper, which was obviously not a receipt.

"Why are there two plane tickets?" he asked.

"Took you long enough," Hibari said, putting them back in the envelope.

"Well?" Nico urged impatiently.

"Our dear boss, the Seventh, thought that Daniela-chan needed to go out of the country for a vacation, seeing that she's never left Italy."

"What? She's going with you? What am I supposed to…"

"You are to stay here and protect the mansion," Hachiro stood up, stretching.

"By myself?"

He opened the door. "Don't worry; I've arranged for reinforcements." The door closed.

'Reinforcements?'

---

"Make sure nothing blows up," Daniela told her butler as she entered the car. Hibari ruffled his hair before Nico could say anything and went into the car after Daniela.

"We'll be seeing you in a week!" Hachiro said, grinning as the chauffeur closed the car door and drove them away. Just as the Nico lost sight of them as the car rounded the corner, a familiar roar echoed throughout the compound, and a black Lamborghini Murcielago screeched into the complex at top speed before spinning expertly to a halt in front of the walkway to the mansion.

"Oh no…" Nico began.

"Konnichiwa!" Fritz yelled as he got out of the driver's seat. Nico felt even more like jumping off a cliff when the other's younger brother came out from the passenger seat and hurled all over the newly planted flowers before falling over on the sidewalk, passed out from Fritz's crazy driving.

"Noooooooo!" The servants once again heard that strange yell from two years ago bounce throughout the compound.

---

"Wow! Japan is so different from Italy!" Daniela commented in Italian as they got out of the plane.

"Try speaking in Japanese while we're here," Hachiro told her.

"Ah, but I still don't know a lot…"

"You'll do fine. We'll be staying at my family's place, and they're all Italian-illiterate. Well… most of them are Italian-illiterate."

"Oh…"

However, Daniela remained completely silent from the airport to the taxi to the Hibari household, leaving her bodyguard to do all the talking in rapid Japanese. When they finally reached her temporary residence, half an hour later, the girl was all nerves.

Daniela almost jumped in her seat when Hachiro poked her shoulder. "Hey, don't be nervous," he told her.

"I'm not nervous!" she snapped.

He smiled. "Don't worry; they're nice people. Maybe a little crazy… but not Fritz and Dirk crazy."

He knocked on the door, humming tunelessly to himself. Daniela sometimes wondered if it was because she didn't know the songs that Hibari hummed or that he just couldn't keep a tune, since she never managed to figure out what in the world he was singing. The door opened, revealing a young woman in a kimono. She gasped and bowed to Hachiro, saying something in Japanese. Daniela watched as the two exchanged several more words, and Hachiro motioned for her to follow them.

The maid led the two through a Japanese styled hallway opened to the outside garden, complete with wooden floors and paper and wood sliding doors. They stopped in front one of the doors, and Hibari dismissed her. Bowing, the maid left to tell the rest of the household of the eighth son's arrival.

"This is your room," Hachiro told her as Daniela uncertainly opened the door, revealing a quaint little room with bamboo flooring, a closet, and a door to what she presumed was the bathroom.

"Where are you staying?" she asked him.

"Right next door. Can't have you getting lost here. I'm still your bodyguard after all."

A small smile of appreciation graced her lips. "Thanks…"

They entered the room, the girl looking around for any signs of furniture. She opened the closet to find what looked like a white folded bed with a blanket and pillow. "Yeah… You'll be sleeping on the floor…" Hachiro told her, unsure of her reaction since Daniela had slept in a huge comfortable bed for most of her life.

Daniela stared at the futon for a minute before grinning, "Awesome…" She turned to him. "So where's the rest of your family?"

"Ah… you'll see…"

"Do you have a lot of siblings or something?"

He laughed. "Actually, I have nine. I'm the eighth son out of then, hence 'Hachiro'. Haha and Chichi got a little lazy and just named us 'First Son', 'Second Son', and so on…"

Daniela, who had no siblings of her own, replied, "That's crazy…"

"It is?" He smiled. "Well, I always wanted a little sister, but I think Haha's been through enough, raising us ten crazy sons."

"Are all your brothers like you?"

He frowned. "Not at all."

She smirked. "Well that's a relief. I don't know what I'll do if I ended up surrounded by ten Hachiro's."

He flinched at her using his first name but continued talking to her anyway. "Just wait… it won't make much of a difference even if they were all like me."

During dinner, Daniela once again found herself in the uncomfortable situation of keeping silent while Hachiro happily conversed with the rest of his family after introducing her. It was near impossible for her to number the brothers from oldest to smallest, and she gave up as quickly as she had started. She could tell that each one was somehow different from the other; one drank quite a lot from the sake cup and spoke animatedly with a needlessly loud voice, another ate carefully, examining each bite of rice before neatly placing it into his mouth, and yet another brother wolfed down his food bowl after bowl.

Hachiro's father wasn't present, he had gone out of town on some business, and his mom, a lady with white hair and a motherly air to her, kept on asking Daniela in Japanese if the food was good from time to time. The Italian always nodded in response, not knowing what else to do.

Daniela began to examine the people nearest to her since there wasn't much she could do besides eat and stare. Hachiro had the sense to sit next to her, but he immediately began talking to his siblings, whom he haven't seen for two years, so out of consideration, she decided not to not take his attention for herself.

Seated next to her was easily the youngest son; the two younger sons were pretty far apart age-wise, so that made it easier for Daniela. Like Hachiro, the boy had the same black hair and dark eyes, but he had let his hair, the middle part of his bangs and the sides before his ear, to grow past his eyes and partly over the bridge of his nose. Staring at his head of flat hair, Daniela wondered if it would stick up like Hachiro's if he cut it short enough. She hesitated for a second, wondering if she should attempt at conversation with this boy who was reading at a dinner table and slowly taking a bite out of his food every minute or so, completely ignoring the world around him.

She decided. "Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Daniela desu. Doozo yoroshiku," she said very quickly, certain that she had some sort of weird accent that she couldn't hear. He didn't respond. 'Great… that's a complete failure…' she thought. 'Why did he have to be the quiet brother?'

After a while, seeing no end to the others' conversations and not wanting to get up and leave since she might get lost on the way back, Daniela tried again. "Onamae wa nan desuka?" she asked him for his name.

The boy finally looked up from his book, and she felt a chill run down her spine when their eyes met. He contemplated for a second before responding, "Juro," and returned to his book.

'What was that?' she thought. 'Those eyes… they were so… murderous…"

"Disturb me again…" he said in shaky Italian, "and Kami korosuyo," he finished in Japanese.

His tone wasn't all too friendly, so Daniela contented herself with memorizing the Japanese phrase to ask Hachiro later.

Unfortunately, even that was impossible. When Hachiro had finally excused himself from the dinner, he was a little red and looked like he needed to sleep.

"How much did you drink?" she asked him crossly.

"Ah… actually, I didn't intend to drink, but… I don't remember… Shiro-kun kept on refilling my cup… I think he spiked it with sake…"

She sighed, shaking her head.

"Hey! I'm legal now in Japan!" he said. "Come to think about it… sixteen was the legal age in Italy, wasn't it?"

"Don't even think about it," she told him.

"Oyasuminasai," he bid her goodnight when they reached their rooms.

"Oyasuminasai," she responded.

Daniela turned on the light in her room and pulled the futon out from the closet, setting it up. After showering and brushing her teeth, she crawled under the covers, tired from jetlag and the day's proceedings. 'There are some strange people in this world…' she thought as she drifted off into a deep slumber.

---

"Sumimasen, Hachiro-san wa doko desuka?" Daniela asked the first brother that she met the next afternoon where Hachiro was. She had completely overslept and didn't fully awake until she realized that it was one o'clock.

The brother replied in rapid Japanese, and Daniela concluded that Hachiro had gone out with yet another brother; she's given up on trying to identify which one was which. However, after a few more exchanges, she concluded that it was the same Shiro who spiked Hachiro's drink the night prior. Thanking Ichiro, who seemed to be the most normal and oldest out of the brothers, she went on to the dining room to look for some food that he said they had left for her.

"Konnichiwa," she greeted Juro when she entered the dining room and saw him curled up in the room by another one of the sliding doors opened to the garden, once again reading the book.

He looked at her for a split second before returning to his book. 'He really does like reading, doesn't he?' she thought.

After eating, she walked over to him, bored out of her mind and in need of someone to talk to. "Omoshiroi desuka?" she asked if it was interesting, pointing to the book.

Juro finally put the object down and pulled out a pair of what looked like metal L's from his sleeves. After saying a phrase that she didn't quite understand, Daniela heard the words, "Kami korosuyo," again. She took a step back, wondering if Juro was going to hit her with those strange weapons.

"Juro-chan," someone said in a sing-song voice, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. Juro whirled around, glaring at Hachiro. Grunting irritably, he bent down to pick up his book after putting the two poles away and stormed past Hachiro, who had one of his sai out. Daniela stared incredulously at her bodyguard and realized that Shiro was with him. After patting Hachiro on the back and saying some more Japanese sentences that Daniela didn't quite understand, the fourth brother left Hachiro alone with his charge.

"Ah… sorry about that. He's like that," Hachiro apologized, putting his sai away.

"Where were you?" she demanded.

"Shiro-kun…" he said, pursing his lips a little.

"Well?" She wanted to tell him how irresponsible he was for leaving her alone at the house, but she first wanted to hear his reason.

"It's stupid, don't worry about it," he told her.

"Wait… Are those earrings?" she gasped when she saw pair of elegant black pearls on him, one on each ear.

"Uh…" he blushed, surprising her. She had never seen him blush. "Shiro-kun said I didn't look like I was in the mafia, and I was still half-asleep this morning…"

She tried really hard not to laugh. She really did. But, a small chuckle escaped from her lips. "It looks… good on you…" she finally managed.

"Really?" he perked up.

"Well, smart guy, you can always remove the earrings and let the holes close if you don't want them."

"I uh… I kind of like them…" he said, looking away.

"Ha! Knew it!" she grinned triumphantly.

"They were expensive!"

---

On the third day, they decided to phone home to check on Nico. As expected, the butler wasn't all too happy with the distraction, since he had enough distractions to worry about.

"Konnichiwa, Nico-chan," Hachiro said when the other finally answered.

"What were you thinking?" the other exploded. The bodyguard made sure to keep the phone a few inches away from his ear for his own health.

"How is it back home?" Daniela asked on her own cellphone; they were making a three-way call.

"Disaster! Dietrich was out for day from motion sickness, and all Frtiz's been doing is supplying the entire mansion with hidden stashes of his inventions!"

"Dietrich got motion sickness?" Hachiro asked.

"He let Fritz drive his car here…"

Hachiro snorted. Nico wanted to continue on ranting about how Dietrich had lamented over Daniela's absence after he finally recovered; the golf-club wielder didn't know that the Vongola heir was also going to Japan and intended to visit her. However, he decided to save the story later for Hachiro when they returned, hearing how Daniela was also on the phone listening to the conversation.

They heard a few crashes in the background, followed by an explosion and some yelling.

"Hey Nico!" Fritz's voice said. "One of the ketchup bombs kind of went off!"

"Why would you even invent such a thing! Ugh, my shirt is all ruined!" Dietrich joined in.

"Eh? But it's only ketchup."

"Why use ketchup as a weapon when you can use Tabasco sauce?"

"Ketchup tastes better than Tabasco sauce!"

"Idiot! It's supposed to hurt the enemy, not feed them!"

"Both of you, clean it up or there will be no dinner!" Nico yelled at them.

"No! Anything but that!" the brothers said at the same time and the two in Japan heard some shuffling as Fritz and Dirk went to retrieve cleaning supplies. Well, Fritz went to retrieve cleaning supplies; Dirk was planning to escape to change his clothes and take a shower.

"Oh wait, I think…" Fritz began.

"No! Don't touch that!" Dietrich yelled and they heard another blast.

"Nico-chan?" Hachiro called his name, trying not to laugh. "It's rude to ignore people on the phone."

"Hibari-san…" Nico's voice was dead serious. "I'm going to kill you when you get back…"

"Hey hey! I wasn't the one who picked them. I merely suggested that the Seventh send some people, and Fritz happened to overhear."

"I expect a suitcase full of cookbooks in return…" The phone went dead.

"Oh dear…" Hachiro laughed. "This is probably worse than I thought."

"You sent Fritz and Dirk?" Daniela asked him, looking at him. She really didn't want the mansion looking like a giant bowl of chopped up spaghetti when they got back.

"Fritz just wanted to visit since he hasn't come over for some time, and Dirk… I have no idea why he would come along. Perhaps he wanted to make another attempt at your life?" Hachiro answered, shrugging a little too dramatically.

"Sure…"

"Now," he began, changing the subject. "What shall we do today…"

That day, they visited the shrine before stopping in the shopping district of the city. Hachiro led them to a traditional clothing store and spoke to the saleswoman, pointing at Daniela. Half an hour later, they walked out; Daniela had a lavender kimono wrapped neatly inside a shopping bag.

"Than… thank you," she stuttered. She hadn't expected for Hachiro to pay; the girl was taking out her own wallet when Hachiro quickly took out some cash and beat her to the register.

"This one should fit you until you grow into the other one, but… I have no idea how to put it on, so Haha will help you when the time comes."

"Uh… okay… but why now?"

"We're going to watch the cherry blossoms later this week. You'll look more Japanese if you're in a kimono." He chuckled. "Or else, you'll stick out like a rotten apple with that face."

"Hey!" She really wanted to smack him.

"Just kidding."

"What are you going to wear?" she asked, curious.

"The manly version."

"Weirdo…"

"Hey, that's not nice." Hachiro suddenly turned his head to another store before Daniela could retort. "Ah, so it moved here. That saves us some walking. Let's take care of Nico's books…"

Two hours later, the two returned to the house, Daniela holding two books in her arms along with two bags worth of souvenirs and her kimono and Hachiro balancing eighteen volumes in a shaky stack. The two had had a bet on how many books Hachiro could carry, and this was the end result.

---

Daniela finally found someone other than Hachiro to converse with during the fourth dinner. Saburo was the third oldest of the ten brothers, thirty years of age, and an intellectual.

"I took Italian when Hachiro-kun started because I didn't want him to know more than me," he admitted animatedly to Daniela, who held on to each word. The fact that she had finally found that more than one of the brothers spoke fluent Italian relieved her quite a bit.

"So are you better than him in Italian?" she asked him.

"Ah, unfortunately, I don't think so, because he has more practice than me. Ever since he joined the mafia ten years ago, he's barely been home."

"Doesn't it… doesn't it bother you that Hachiro-san is in the mafia? It isn't the safest of stations for him or you."

Saburo shrugged. "Well, it's our fault after all. I mean, having seven brothers before you, each different in their own unique way, you would've expected someone like Hachiro-kun to go do something crazy like join the mafia. Besides," he took a sip of tea before continuing, "Hachiro-kun's a genius. The mafia came themselves to offer him a spot."

"I see…" Daniela contemplated this idea for a bit. "So how are your other brothers like?"

He laughed. "Oh dear, well… For starters, the first eight are all two years apart. Kuro-kun's 15, Juro-kun is 10; I believe that you've talked to the latter?"

"Yeah…" she admitted, blushing a little and hoping that she didn't have to say anything strange about the youngest of the Hibari brothers.

"Don't worry about that. Juro-kun's like that. Last year, he beat up this kid triple his size with those tonfa of his."

"That rod?"

"So you've seen them? Yeah, they're called tonfa. I personally didn't believe that a bladeless weapon had any merit until I saw how Juro-kun used them. Then again, I'd rather not see it again. We ended up apologizing to the other boy's family even though it was Juro-kun being picked on… initially… Needless to say, we haven't had bullying problems since then."

"Then…" Daniela paused. "What does 'Kami korosuyo' mean?"

"I'll bite you to death."

"Huh?"

Saburo shrugged. "It's just a habit of his. I wonder if we let him watch too much television… but I'm pretty sure all he does all day is read…"

"I see…"

"So what about you? Do you have any siblings?" he asked her. Daniela shook her head no. "Ah, there's pros and cons. More cons in our case because we're all so crazy."

She laughed. "It's fun."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah…" she contemplated before sipping some tea.

---

"Is something the matter?" Hachiro asked Daniela as they walked back to their rooms.

"It's nothing…" She looked at her feet.

"Are you sure? Come on, I've known you for two years; I know that face."

"Two years is not a lot," she returned.

"Romeo and Juliet only knew each other for less than a month…"

"Really, it's nothing." She shut the door in his face.

Sighing, Hachiro walked to his room, glancing at the moon. "Something's… going to happen soon… it's been too quiet…" he whispered under his breath. "Vongola…"

---

_If there was one thing I learned during those few days, it was how little of the world and people I have seen. I didn't mean to get all moody over it, but… it was just so… different from my life, or lack of life thereof, having no family to begin with. I've never given the life it could have been a thought; until that trip to Japan, I've only focused on the fact that they were gone…_

* * *

Note: Ah! I updated! I couldn't resist… started on this and didn't touch any homework until I finished. Okay okay, I will ATTEMPT to go do Biology homework now whee…

Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_I suppose I should have seen it coming. After all, anything can happen when the mafia, especially one as extensive as Vongola, is involved. The reality of the incident remained cemented in my thoughts ever since I realized it was inevitable. Even now, when I look back, I wonder if fate had decided from the very beginning to chain me to Vongola._

_Vongola, the largest and most influential mafia family in the world with branches reaching even the most distant countries… I wanted none of that power._

---

Hachiro's phone rang around eight o'clock in the morning of the fifth day. The body guard twitched and pulled the covers over his head, too lazy to pick up and half deluding that whoever was calling would give up. As he predicted in his dreamy haze, the ringing stopped, and Hachiro felt his consciousness begin to slip away again when the blasted object began ringing again.

Groaning, he grabbed the phone and was about to chuck the object through the paper door when he saw a strangely familiar number on the little flashing digital screen. Hachiro sat up immediately, throwing off his blankets, and answered the phone.

"Hello? Seventh?" Hachiro said, failing to stifle a yawn. 'Great impression, Hachiro…' he told himself.

"Hibari-san? Is that you?" To his surprise, he instead heard Nico on the other line.

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" Fritz's overly excited voice joined in. "Wait, it is morning over there, right?"

"What's going on?" Hachiro asked irritably, half ready to hang up on them. 'How can they call me like this? Maybe it was good that they interrupted my dream about… What was it again? Oh right, we had duck for dinner last night… ducks… flying… food…' He was about to fall over and go back to sleep with the phone on.

"I don't know; the Seventh suddenly called and then put us on hold," Nico answered him, and Hibari's head almost touched the pillow.

"Where is Daniela?" the person in question came into the conversation, jerking Hachiro awake and back to his sitting position.

"Not in immediate sight. Why?" he said, frowning. 'Something must have happened to the other heirs…'

"Good, then let's start," Fabio said. "This regards Miss Daniela."

"Did something happen with Alberto and Valentino?" Fritz hit the mark.

"They were murdered yesterday."

"So…" Hachiro began. 'Thought so…'

"I want Daniela back in Italy as soon as possible. We can't afford to lose any more heirs. Friedrich will return to Germany, and Dietrich is to stay at the mansion for now. Two of the Varia are on their way there now to take Friedrich's place. I expect Daniela on the next flight going back to Italy," he dictated.

"Should I tell her what's happened?" Hachiro asked.

"If you must." They heard a sound indicating that the Seventh had hung up. Hachiro assumed that he had a myriad of other people to deal with now that the next heir is female. He knew for a fact that the Seventh had a bit of trouble assuming power due to his weak Sky Flame and made up for it with a gun, but Daniela, who has never shown any promise in leadership nor combat, worried him.

"He's a brief person…" Nico sighed.

"This isn't too good though…" Fritz muttered. "Wait? Did he just say I have to go back? Why? I wanted to see Daniela!" he lamented.

"Yes! Go back to Germany before you set off another bomb!" Dietrich yelled somewhere in the background.

"Hey! You tripped on at least two of them yesterday, and you didn't help me clean!" Fritz retorted.

"Hibari-san?" Nico called the other's name while Fritz and Dirk continued arguing.

"Hm?" he snapped out of his reverie.

The butler hesitated. "Please hurry."

"Jyaa, mata," he told the other and hung up.

"Hibari-san?" he heard someone call him and turned around to see Daniela standing in the doorway, already dressed in the kimono they bought the other day.

"Oh, ohayo gozaimasu," he greeted her, trying to keep a straight face. 'This might be a little difficult.'

"Did you just get up? Hurry or all the viewing spots will be taken!" she told him, and he suddenly remembered that they had decided to watch the sakura today.

He smiled. "Okay okay!"

'Just for a little while longer…'

---

They walked on foot to the nearest park, which had an adequate amount of sakura trees and remained surprisingly empty that morning. The fully bloomed flowers let loose their soft pink petals into the air, covering the scene with little waves of color and fresh scent.

Daniela breathed in the scenery, closing her eyes dreamily. "There was a saying," she said, "that under the cherry blossom trees there are bodies."

"Yeah, it was story written by Motojiro Kajii," Hachiro informed her.

She fell silent for a while, and the two watched the petals flutter in the soft wind. "Hey Hibari-san…" Daniela spoke, her voice contemplative.

"Hm?"

"When I die, tell them to plant a sakura tree over my grave, will you?"

He chuckled, "Why think of such things now? You're still young."

She shook her head. "When dealing with Vongola, one cannot calculate one's remaining life."

"You are getting philosophical," he replied and suddenly realized but hoped that he was wrong. "Why now all of a sudden?"

"I overheard you this morning when I came to wake you up," she said simply.

He grimaced at being right about his instinctual thought.

She smiled sadly. "It's not your fault." The wind picked up, and she sighed. "I… I can't… I refuse to become next heir."

"It's not a choice that you can make."

"I know… but…" She shook her head, sighing again and trying to sort the thoughts in her head. "It was because of Vongola that my family died. If my parents had never been part of the mafia, then nothing like that would have ever happened," she said bitterly.

"Well, your father was the Seventh's brother after all."

Daniela didn't answer him but instead fixed her gaze on the sakura, away from him.

"What can you do about it?" he asked her.

"I don't know." Her eyes moved to the base of one of the trees.

He hesitated, wondering if he should ask the next question; he knew the answer wouldn't be good. "What would you have me do?"

She froze for a second. Daniela slowly turned around, her gold eyes meeting his dark ones "Kill me."

"What?"

"You heard me. I said kill me. Isn't that the only choice I can make right now? Life or death is the only decision I can make."

"You would go to such extremes?" he muttered.

"Yes," she said resolutely and looked at the trees. "After seeing your family, I… I don't even remember my own now; the memories of them just keep on fading away a little every year…"

"Daniela…"

"So that's why…" She waited for a reaction and when the other didn't move, she yelled, "Do I have to say it twice?" Before Hibari realized what was going on, she took the case out of his pocket, removing one of the sai in the process.

"You're not going to get anywhere with that," he told her.

"I can still…" she held it like a dagger and attempted to submerge the mini-weapon into her abdomen. Despite its miniscule size, the fork-like piece of metal was still as sharp as any dagger.

In an instant, Hachiro grabbed her hand, stopping the action. Daniela struggled. "Let me go!"

"Stop it!" he yelled at her.

She jerked away from him, and he swatted the sai away from her hand. She suddenly felt a pain from her left temple down to her cheek. Flinching, the girl looked on the floor and saw flower petals, a few of which that were covered by drops of blood, and realized that the weapon had hit the side of her face before flying away. She reached up to the shallow cut, touching it gently.

"Ah…" Hachiro flinched, shocked. "I… I'm sorry."

She glared at him and looked at the weapon on the ground.

He ran over to it and picked it up before she could reach for it. Daniela watched him like a cat as he raised the weapon to his eyes, examining the blood now stained on the tip of the sai. He looked at her. "Is this what you really want?"

She nodded, removing her hand from her face and studying the blood on her fingertips. 'Just like that time…'

Hachiro walked over to her, letting his Cloud Flame cover the sai and restored the weapon to its fighting size. Daniela smiled and closed her eyes, preparing herself for the anticipated pain. She felt metal against her cut, almost tenderly, and she opened her eyes.

Hachiro moved the side of the middle prong along Daniela's cut, wiping the blood onto the weapon, slowly brining it from the top of the wound to the bottom. He withdrew the weapon, now covered with a thin layer of red liquid along the circular middle spike.

"What are you…" she began.

"I've murdered the eighth heir of Vongola and will accept all responsibility…" Hachiro said without looking at her. He turned around and began walking away, leaving the awestruck girl in the middle of the hallway of trees, the bloody sai clasped tightly in his hand.

'Did he just?' Daniela looked at her blood stained fingers again. "I'm…"

"Vongola will kill him," an accented voice said behind her, making her panic. Juro was seated comfortably on the branch of one of the trees. He jumped down and began to walk away. She watched as the youngest brother disappeared out of the park and into the hurricane of petals that danced in the air as the wind picked up.

---

Hachiro threw the rest of his stuff into the suitcase and stared at the contents, frowning. 'I have to learn to travel lighter.'

"The next plane is tomorrow morning, right?"

Hachiro whirled around to find Daniela, dressed in her normal clothes and the side of her face bandaged neatly.

"You…" he gasped, surprised.

She looked away, her cheeks a little red from embarrassment. "Your mom helped me bandage it. I told her a bird crashed into me."

"A bird?" If it wasn't so serious, he would have laughed at her impossible lie. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Why? You could've done anything you want," Hachiro finally broke the silence.

She looked away, averting his gaze. "It's not worth it. I don't want Hibari-san to die because of me."

Hachiro raised an eyebrow. "Am I that weak?" he teased her.

"Hey! I was trying to be considerate!" she snapped.

"Then why did you try to kill yourself with something the size of a fork? It'll hurt a lot more, you know."

"I…" She stopped sighing. "I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry, I was being selfish."

He grinned. "Glad you realized that."

She threw him a glare before looking outside at the moon, its soft light illuminating the rock garden. "Let's go home…"

"Are you sure?" Hachiro asked her. He wanted a resolute answer like the one she almost gave him back at the park.

"Yeah," she smiled.

---

The plane's engine roared to life as the machine began lifting off the runway towards the heavens. Daniela looked outside her window, eager to watch the ground fly away from her view like the first flight. It was a good half hour before they were safely in the air and were told that they could freely walk around.

"I'm sorry about the cut," Hachiro said out of nowhere. After that, they were silent for a while with only the plane's engine and some other passengers 'quiet conversations filling the air. "Is it… is it going to scar?" he hesitantly added, unable to take the silence.

She shrugged. "Don't know; don't care. Aren't all mafia bosses ugly old men anyway?"

That caught him by surprise. "Your uncle Fabio isn't old!"

"Too bad. I'll get a tattoo over it or something later if it bothers you," she said casually. "Something cool like a skull or dragon…"

"You're into that kind of stuff?" He always thought Daniela was more of the nature kind like flowers and feathers.

"No, but I'm sure Nico would flip if I got either one of those tattoos," she said, grinning.

---

'Home…' Daniela thought as the car neared her mansion in Italy. She saw Nico waiting outside for her impatiently walking in circles.

"Ah! Daniela! What happened?" Nico exclaimed when she stepped out of the car, pointing at her bandages.

"A bird crashed into me," she said simply.

"How did a bird crash into you? Ah, let me see that." He gently removed some of the bandages to study the extent of the damage. "Let's put some proper ointment on it. It might scar a little. When did you become so careless?" he fussed over her.

She shrugged. "I was stupid."

Hibari watched as the two walked off towards the mansion, the older fussing over the younger. He looked at his hand. "A choice… huh…"

---

After dinner, the three once again found themselves in the comfort of the familiar drawing room, suitcases piled up in the corner like two years ago when Hibari last went to Japan. Dirk had somehow avoided them the entire day, making the excuse of sickness for staying in his room. "He's probably just embarrassed," Nico and Hibari had mutually agreed early on.

"So, did you get me the…" Nico asked eagerly.

"Catch," Hibari opened the largest suitcase and began throwing its contents out.

"Wah!" Nico caught book after book, balancing them in his arms. They rained down on him like hail, and he eagerly took each one head on.

Daniela chuckled. "He caught all twenty. He beat you."

Just then, Nico lost his balance and landed in a heap of books and limbs.

"I take that back…" the girl muttered.

"You okay?" Hibari asked, trying not to laugh.

"Thank you!" Nico yelled under the pile of cookbooks.

---

_Who knew that Juro-kun would be the most considerate one out of us? And the bird… I've never told Hachiro about why I chose the bird. Well, thinking back, I guess it was because I knew "Hibari" meant "skylark." So in a way, he really did crash into me._

_Needless to say, life at the mansion began to change quite a bit afterwards… I wouldn't say it was for the better or the other, but definitely more… lively…_

* * *

Note: Ah, the sweet relaxation of Spring Break… Oh, so the sai's only sharp at the tip; it's not like a sword (just in case). Think toothpick XD.

Thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_Excuse me; I've been sleeping quite a lot. That last memory made me so tired… I found myself staring at the pages and trying to remember what happened afterwards, but nothing seems to come back. Memory fades so easily… I wonder if I'll find the strength to finish this… No, I must complete this before… _

_I'll admit that I wasn't the type to actively seek a large number of friendships, so I guess suddenly being named the next heir to Vongola did have its advantages. Though, we were lucky that the mansion sustained no permanent damage, less so since Fritz returned to Germany._

_It was all for the best, this slow start into the mafia. I wouldn't have had it any other way, or I wouldn't have ever managed to go through with my decision to return to Italy._

---

"Good morning," Daniela said to Nico as she walked down the stairs, stifling a yawn.

"Morning? It's noon!" the butler answered. "Good afternoon to you."

"Huh? I slept that long?" She looked around her and realized that the sunlight poured in from a different window than it does in the morning. "Ah, jetlag does wonders," she said, rubbing her eyes, having accidentally looked at the glare of light off one of the glass panes.

"Two members from the Varia should be arriving sometime this afternoon, so please prepare for that," Nico told her. He frowned a little. "I heard that the Varia's a little…"

"Unpredictable," Dietrich answered for him. They looked over to the German, who was leaning casually against one of the pillars with his arms crossed. He saw Daniela and averted his eyes. "I apologize for being absent yesterday."

'Good thing she's wearing her 'normal' clothes or else… and what's with the bandages?' he thought to himself. Daniela on the other hand had forgotten that Dietrich was still at the mansion and didn't bother picking out a fancy outfit to annoy him.

"Are we having lunch soon?" she instead asked Nico, ignoring the other.

'How dare she!' Dietrich thought.

"Yeah, I just tried calling Hibari-san down and was going to go wake you up," Nico said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Is he coming then?"

"I don't think so, he kind of just turned around and went back to sleep," the butler answered sheepishly. "He said something about leaving it in the bathtub… I think he meant table."

"How weak, suffering from jetlag," Dietrich commented.

Daniela finally looked at him, smiling threateningly. "Would you please refrain from insults while you stay here?"

"Why should…"

"As the heir to Vongola, I request that you'd shut your mouth," she cut him off firmly.

He contemplated this impossible statement for a second before realizing that he was really in a disadvantageous position now, compared to his first visit. "Hmph." Dietrich left his place at the pillar and stalked off to the dining room.

"You should've just let Hibari-san beat him up later," Nico commented when the other was out of sight.

Daniela shrugged. "I owe Hibari-san, so this is the least I can do. Besides, it's not like Dietrich would insult Hibari-san in front of him. He's not that stupid."

Nico chuckled. "True."

"So what's for lunch? I'm starving."

---

Lunch went on smoothly enough; no one spoke, and Dietrich almost requested that he skipped the tomato based meal until Nico gave him some white sauce pasta instead, complete with a few bottles of black pepper and chili. The smell of ketchup still lingered in Dirk's mind along with the vision of countless rooms covered in red.

Daniela, meanwhile, almost fell asleep over her food despite receiving a considerably large amount of rest the previous night and entire morning.

"Maybe you should go back to sleep? I can greet the Varia members," Nico told her. "Finish your food first though."

"Are you sure?" she asked, trying to shake the sleepiness out of her mind.

"Yeah, it'll just be worse if you're half asleep," he assured her. "Dietrich and I will be fine, right?" he nudged the other.

"What? Why should I?" Dietrich glared at the butler.

"Thanks Dietrich," Daniela said.

"Fine…" he muttered.

"Okay then, I'll see you two later," she yawned and excused herself after taking a last bite. The two guys watched as Daniela slow made her way out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"Why does she have bandages?" Dietrich asked as soon as he was sure that the girl was out of earshot.

"A bird crashed into her," Nico explained before taking another bite.

Dietrich froze. "That is the worst lie I have ever heard. No bird could do that amount of damage to a human's face, especially if it hit head first."

"Maybe it was a human bird?" Nico suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing at all." Nico continued eating.

"Hmph, aren't you curious how your precious little lady really got hurt." Dietrich tried to see if Nico really was hiding something from him.

"If she doesn't want to tell me, then she doesn't have to," the butler answered, shrugging.

"You have that much trust in her and Hibari?" Dirk asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

"Why?"

"Why not?" Nico repeated.

"Why?" Dietrich said again, getting irritated. 'Is he messing with me?'

Nico decided to not continue repeating and contemplated for a minute. "She's here isn't she?" he finally answered.

"What do you mean?"

"They both came back more or less in one piece, so it's not in my place to ask what happened," he said, smiling.

Dietrich paused, unable to fathom the foolish amount of trust the butler had in the other two. "You're an idiot," he finally answered.

"Are you trying to pick a fight, brat?" Nico asked, grinning.

"You'd lose, big brat," Dietrich retorted.

Nico paused, wondering if he'd still lose if they fought now. "That was a horrible insult," he said instead.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, a helicopter flew into the compound, landing expertly on the driveway without crashing into anything. The skill helicopter pilots of Vongola had always awed Nico, not that any of the other vehicles had crashed into anything, surprisingly including Fritz's crazy driving with the Lamborghini, which was still in the complex. Dietrich wouldn't let his brother take the car back.

Dietrich and Nico waited outside as the door to the helicopter slid open, and a man in his late twenties and a girl about Dietrich's age stepped out. The butler examined the newcomers, trying to pinpoint their personalities and hoping that neither was like Fritz in any way. The man had styled his silver hair into a mullet, semi-short and spiky in front and long in back, and had soft spoken crystal blue eyes like those of a big brotherly figure, something Nico was not expecting from a member of the Varia. Seven earrings lined each of the newcomer's ears. On the other hand, the girl, who he had concluded was Chinese, had long straight black hair tied into a ponytail and brown eyes that looked straight through you, intense with a hidden meanness to them.

"Welcome," Nico told them, putting on his butler façade. "Miss Daniela is resting right now from her trip, but please, make yourselves at home."

"Are you Nico?" the man asked him.

"Yes. May I ask your name?"

The man laughed. "You're too formal. Learn to lighten up a little."

"Huh?" That caught Nico by surprise. 'I thought Varia is supposed to be…'

"Your charge is now the next heir to Vongola. She no longer requires a mere butler."

"Excuse me?" Nico said, offended.

"Ah, I didn't mean it like that. You'll understand eventually. People would die to be in your position," the guy said.

Nico stared at him incredulously. "You're losing me."

He laughed again. "Now that's the casual demeanor that I was looking for." He offered his hand to Nico. "My name is Drakon. This is my student, Mei Feng."

Nico took the hand. "Nico," he told him.

"And the other young man?" Drakon looked at Dirk.

Dietrich studied this strange Varia member for a moment and decided that this man, despite the friendly demeanor, could probably beat the crap out of him if he wanted to so Dirk complied. "Dietrich," he answered without shaking Drakon's outstretched hand.

Drakon laughed, withdrawing his hand. "Ah! I was worried that you were Hibari-san."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dirk retorted.

"Drakon means that he was worried that the well-known Hachiro Hibari was actually a stuck up shrimp," Mei Feng said in a monotone before Drakon could stop him.

"No I didn't! I met Hibari-san before, you know!" He turned back to Dirk, who was seething. "Ah, I'm sorry; I have a terrible memory when it comes to faces."

"Your other personality met Hachiro Hibari," she corrected him.

"Let's not talk about that," he said, smiling pleasantly, and changed the subject. "Shall we go to the mansion?"

"Ah, yes. Please follow me," Nico said.

Dietrich glared at Mei Feng as she walked past him. 'How dare she insult me like that!' Their eyes met.

"You're very rude," she told him.

"Well, you're a…" he began.

Something hard and flat collided with the side of his face before he could finish that sentence, knocking him to the ground. "It's impolite to call a lady, names," she told him, fingering a bamboo fan.

"He can't hear you…" Drakon said, sighing.

"Do I have to carry him back?" Nico asked, frowning.

"Allow me," Drakon said and turned to Mei. "If you keep on doing that, I can't give you the new weapon."

She shrugged. "He had it coming to him."

---

"The food is excellent," Drakon complimented Nico during dinner after taking a bite.

"Eating without me, huh?" someone interrupted.

They turned around to see Daniela in the doorway.

"Good evening, Miss Daniela," Nico greeted her.

She nodded to him as she glanced around the room to see which seat she should choose.

"Oh, don't sit next to him. Sit next to me," Mei suddenly said when Daniela took a step towards the seat next to Dietrich and Nico.

'What?' the two thought.

"Uh… okay," Daniela said as she took the seat next to Mei Feng. She had originally wanted to sit next to the other two only because she knew them better.

"You get to see your butler every day, and the other guy's a jerk," Mei explained to her without her needing to ask, making the other laugh.

"Hey!" Dirk yelled.

"My name is Mei Feng, the youngest member of the Varia," she said, ignoring Dirk and offering her hand.

Daniela relaxed, sensing the other's sincerity, strange as it was. She took Mei's hand, shaking it. "I'm Daniela. Pleased to meet you."

Mei smiled. "Let's be friends."

To the annoyance of a butler and a golf-club wielder, the two girls spent the rest of the meal talking animatedly about random things, shutting the guys away from their world. Drakon merely watched the entire scene with a bemused look on his face and attempted to bring the other two into another conversation.

"How is Fritz doing? It's a shame that he had to return to Germany," Drakon said.

"It's good that he went back to Germany!" Dietrich retorted, grimacing. "I bet you wouldn't want to help clean up rooms filled with ketchup."

"It sounds fascinating," Drakon smiled.

"You didn't just say that," Nico gasped.

---

"Your trainee…" Nico began as he walked up to the man on the balcony.

"Ah, she's really good at judging people," Drakon said, grinning.

"Huh?"

He shrugged. "But she's a little picky when it comes to friends, so I guess Miss Daniela passed her expectations. It's good they've become friends. There are not a lot of people her age in the Varia, as you may have guessed."

"I see…" Nico frowned.

"You have quite a nice view here," Drakon said, looking towards the gardens. The moon shone again this night and covered the gardens and forest with a soft blanket of soft white light. After a while, he continued, "So are you guys ready?"

"For what?" Nico felt a slight pang of panic bite at him. 'Is something going to happen again?'

"Well, now that Miss Daniela's the new heir, the Seventh would be sending a trainer any day now," Drakon explained.

"A trainer?" Nico didn't want another crazy person living at the house. He supposed that this Drakon guy was okay, other than the fact he was a little too nice about everything, but he wasn't too sure about Mei Fang.

"She's about the right age. I don't see why not. The rest of the others already started. Look at Dietrich and Mei!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Nico muttered.

"You never know. After all, Daniela does have the blood of Vongola." They were silent for a while. "I'm surprised that we were this careless… letting the first seven fall so easily."

"Is there some kind of conspiracy I should know about?" Nico asked, trying to test this strange Varia member.

"Not at all. Everything was purely fate."

Nico contemplated that. "Fate sucks," he finally concluded.

---

"Yes, we're sending over a home tutor; the Seventh's orders," Friedrich confirmed when Nico called him. The butler heard the usual sounds of tapping keys in the background, along with a strange mechanical hum followed by what sounded like an explosion. "Well that plan's a failure..." Nico heard the other say to himself.

"Fritz!" Nico heard Alfredo in the background.

Tossing his curiosity of the madman's experiment's aside, Nico continued, "Can't we get a little more details?"

"It's strictly confidential; we don't want anyone following her."

"Oh, so the home tutor's a she..."

"Ah, did I let that slip?" the other gasped dramatically.

"Stop it, Fritz. Less bad acting, more concrete details..."

"Alas, I shall not answer to your rudeness."

"Fritz!"

"Twenty years of age, blond hair, blue eyes, a French lady from a wealthy family..."

"Great..." Nico said sarcastically.

"Specializes in a variety of weapons, likes long distance shooting with guns the most... oh what's this?"

"What is it?" Nico asked eagerly.

"It says here that she's a bit of a klutz. Good luck, Nico, you're going to need it." The other chuckled. "Save me one of those delicious cakes you make if something does happen to the house."

"Fritz!" Nico and Alfredo yelled at the same time.

"Ah, I must go. Adieu, my friend. Oh wait, that's French." The phone clicked before Nico could throw in another comment.

"So who's the tutor?" a voice from behind interrupted Nico from his cursing.

"Some French lady called Arianne. Wait... how did you know that Daniela's going to get a tutor?"

"It's common sense," Hibari said, smirking. "I'll leave you to you cursing then. Jyaa, mata, Nico-chan." He left, giving the other a casual backward wave.

"Stop calling me that!" The door slammed behind the bodyguard. Fuming, Nico grabbed a random cookbook to calm himself down.

---

"Drakon," Hibari said when he walked onto the balcony.

"Ah, so you're Hibari-san. I've always wondered how you looked like," the other said, grinning.

"Why did they send you?"

"The Seventh believes that we'll be attacked shortly."

"So he sent the second in command of the Varia…"

"Ah, please don't… I don't like to boast," he said good-naturedly.

Hibari grinned. "Oh come on, you defeated me last time."

"No I didn't. That was the other me." Drakon looked at the trees. "He can sense them coming."

"When?"

"Soon."

The trees rustled.

"This isn't going to be like Alfredo's illusions," Drakon said.

"You're talking to the wrong guy," Hibari answered, taking out the case from his pocket.

---

Daniela looked outside the window of her study and turned away to go downstairs when Mei Feng grabbed her wrist. She looked at the Chinese girl, who shook her head.

"Just watch from here," Mei told her. "This is what the mafia truly looks like. Everything you've seen before was nothing more than a prelude."

---

"_A prelude," she had said. What a beautiful term for this romanticized underground world. I had always thought that fighting didn't involve too much effort on the part of my protectors because Hachiro had always made it look so easy. I was sorely mistaken…_

* * *

Extra: Semi Character Profile – Nicolas (Nico)**  
**Age: 7 years older than Daniela  
Birthday: September 20  
Horoscope sign: Virgo  
Blood Type: AB  
Place of Birth: Italy  
Eye Color: Light blue  
Hair Color: Black  
Favorite phrase: (none)  
Favorite food: All minus extremes  
Flame: Rain  
Weapons: Katana, Wakizashi  
Hobbies: Cooking

Note: Thanks for reading! In terms of weapons… I'm a little clichéd ha ha, so bear with me.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Warning: Uh… blood? I don't think it's enough to up the rating to an M since it's just writing… and I've seen worse in movies rated PG-13. XD

* * *

_(The writing changed.) She's been sleeping for a while now, so I'll write for this segment. I believe my memory is adequate enough for this part of the story, so bear with me. I'm not a better writer than Daniela; she's had a lot more practice._

_The mafia is not romantic. Most of it anyway…_

---

The wind suddenly died in the complex, leaving everything in complete foreboding silence. Hachiro slowly removed two of the sai from the container and placed the box back into his pocket. He clenched the weapons in his hands, restraining his Flame for the time being.

"Smart; don't give away your location just yet," Drakon whispered.

"I thought that the Seventh would've sent more of the Varia if he expected an ambush this large," Hachiro mouthed back. Their eyes met for a brief second and he understood. With that brief glance, Hachiro knew that the rest of the Varia resided all around the complex, probably surrounding the ones surrounding the mansion. The problem rested on how many of the enemy would get through to the mansion. As skillful as he knew Drakon and himself were, protecting an entire mansion from a miniature army was close to impossible.

"Mei Feng is with Daniela," Drakon muttered.

"What about the other two and the servants?"

"Let's hope they'll be fine."

Hibari smirked. "Nice plan you have."

"The Varia only accepts missions that they can execute with complete certainty of success. Our mission was to protect Daniela and only Daniela."

"Is that you speaking or the other one?"

Drakon smiled lightly. "Varia."

"I thought so."

---

"Daniela, you have to stay in here," Mei said when the other attempted to leave again.

"I can sense them… they're everywhere!" Daniela told her, whirling around. "What about the others? I can't just…"

"We cannot worry about them. The main target is you, so revealing yourself would mean certain death," Mei responded as she closed the lights.

Daniela grimaced and looked out the window again at Hachiro and Drakon, who were casually talking and seemed to not notice the impending threat.

"They know," Mei assured her.

"But…"

"Wait," Mei told her, leaning against the window, half looking outside. "Patience is critical for a good boss." She moved her gaze towards the sky. "And I'd suggest that you stand to the side of the window, not in front of it. It's about to start."

---

"I see you finally got your ears pierced like I suggested several years ago," Drakon said cheerfully.

"I was drunk the night before," Hachiro hissed back.

"That's a weak excuse," he chuckled. "Look at me! I have fourteen piercings!"

"Seven on each ear right?"

"Yup. To show my dedication to the Seventh… and I got them all at one time." He frowned. "That was pretty dumb of me, now that I think about it. If I had only gotten them in intervals, it might not have gotten infected so badly."

"Looks fine now."

Drakon chuckled lightly. "True true… it wasn't enough though…"

"Come again?"

He grinned, looking at the sky. "You guys are pretty lucky. I envy you."

The clouds covered the moon, and suddenly the forest came alive all around them.

"I get the first one," Drakon said in a sing-song voice as he drew his hand back and punched something in the stomach. The attacker gave a cry when three blades suddenly sprung out from the cestus that Drakon had put on and impaled the torso. The Varia member swung his hand aside, throwing the man off his weapon and letting him fall towards the earth several floors below.

"You're becoming better at killing," Hachiro told him, ushering the Cloud Flames onto his sai and enlarging them before doing the same to another person who decided to unwittingly jump onto the balcony.

Drakon looked at the blood on his modified cestus, which had three claws protruding from the top that was activated by a spring. Besides staining the blades and handle, the liquid had spurted all over his hands and parts of his sleeve. "To tell you the truth, I'm still a little uncomfortable around blood," he said, smiling pleasantly.

"Doesn't look that way to me," Hachiro commented as he casually kicked something out of the air towards the ground below. "Hey, your Varia is taking all the fun. These guys are weak."

"That's what you get for not joining Varia, my student."

"You told me that a body guard's life is more exciting, baka sensei," Hibari retorted.

"Oh dear, your Japanese insults are coming back. You know I taught you Italian ones so I'd know what you were calling me."

"Yes, because you freaked out every time you saw blood when you were teaching me."

"Having a reminiscent moment about the old days?" a new voice joined the conversation. The two Vongola members looked over to the balcony, finding that one of the attackers was standing on the railing, balancing effortlessly on the marble. He licked his lips and unsheathed his zweihaender, giving it a swing and sending a blast of wind at the two the shattered the glass windows behind them.

"Friend of yours?" Drakon asked Hibari.

"You killed my brother, do you remember?" the man snarled.

Hachiro shook his head, "Nope, not at all."

---

"The front looks covered," Mei commented.

"The back…" Daniela began.

"We should go to an inner room; it's safer there," Mei told her. The other nodded and followed the Chinese girl out of the study, grabbing a few objects from her desk on the way out.

The entire house was dark, but the two had little difficulty making their way through the hallways since Daniela knew the place so well. Peeping around corners for signs of life every time they approached one, Mei Feng made the short journey a little longer than normal, but they reached the designated inner room without too much lost time.

It had one window to one of the back of the house that supplied another escape route, just in case. Daniela looked outside this window and saw the other two remaining fighters that currently resided in her mansion.

---

"You'll just get in the way," Dietrich hissed to Nico as they stood outside the back entrance, enjoying the fresh night air.

"I'm just as qualified to fight as you are," Nico retorted back when someone flew out of the bushes and swung at him. The head of a golf club connected with the attacker's face, throwing him out of the garden over the wall.

"Wow, nice swing," Nico complimented the other.

"Of course," Dietrich replied confidently, smiling smugly at his success and forgetting that he had wanted Nico out of the way. "My Thunder Flame is excellent for long distance swings."

"That looked like a baseball stance though."

"No it wasn't."

"Sure." Nico suddenly drew his katana out and hit the next attacker with the hilt, knocking the wind out of him. The butler twisted the blade and then hit the same spot again after lining the blunt end of the sword with Rain Flames. The man twitched and fell to the ground, not moving.

"I see you've learned how to use your Flame…" Dietrich said. "But why use the blunt side of the blade? It's a lot more efficient if you just killed him."

Nico shrugged. "I don't know." They looked up in time to see massive outline of what looked like a human stalk towards them. "Hey… you've been fighting for much longer than I have. Do you…"

"No, I do not know what that lump of fat is, but I will be the one to take it down, so stay out of my way," Dietrich answered, bringing his Flames to life on his weapon.

---

The man swung his massive zweihaender at Hibari first, who dodged nimbly by jumping to the side. The force behind the swing neatly rid the doors of what glass remained in the frames.

"Hey Hachiro!" Drakon, who was busy fighting another wave of weaklings, yelled over to him.

"I'm no longer your student, so you can't call me that anymore," Hachiro said to him, ducking from another swing and lunging forward. He caught the zweihaender between two of his sai's prongs, and the metal slid until it struck the parrying hook, an extension of the main blade that resembled a second handle, used to protect the main handle of the sword. Hibari tried to fling the sword away or break the blade in the process, but neither method worked as the man moved and Hachiro instead found his own weapon flying from his hand.

"Oh, Thunder Flames. That explains it," Hachiro said to himself when he saw the green lining of fire along the zweihaender's blade. "You're from the Nerio Family: the Lightning Swordsman."

Smiling sadistically, the Lightning Swordsman finally allowed his Flame to run rampant throughout the balcony, making Hachiro and Drakon jump in the air to prevent getting shocked.

"Hachiro, get out of here. He's out of your league," Drakon yelled.

"It's not like you'll do any better in that state," his student retorted. Hibari drew another sai, and using rooftop as leverage, propelled himself back at the man. He successfully pinned the zweihaender to ground and swung his other sai at the Lightning Swordsman's throat.

"Behind you!" his former teacher yelled. Hachiro stopped and jumped away just in time to avoid a bullet to the shoulder that came from the side.

'Snipers…' Hachiro thought as he threw one of his sai into the trees, earning a yell as someone fell off.

Meanwhile, Drakon found himself surrounded by at least a dozen of the normal attackers on the roof as the moon began to make its reappearance from behind the clouds. "Look, I really don't want to hurt you guys," he said nervously, readying his claws.

"Baka, just kill them!" Hibari yelled as he moved towards the man on the balcony again, who was watching the entire scene with a bemused smile on his cruel face. Yet another normal soldier sprung out of the trees and halted his ascent towards the balcony. "Get out of my way!" He kicked him away and finally managed to find a spot on the railing not covered by Flames.

'Wait… stupid…' Hibari suddenly realized his mistake.

A blast of electrolyzed wind cut through the air and sliced into his chest.

---

"That should have broken his skull!" Dietrich said, amazed. He had smashed his Thunder Flame enhanced golf club right onto the creature's head, but received no results in the process. The monster merely shook its head a little and continued towards them.

"Now what, genius?" Nico asked nervously.

"You try!" Dietrich yelled at him, now obviously panicking.

The butler ran at the monster and attempted to slice off an arm. To his surprise, his blade bounced off, like hitting rubber with rubber. The monster made a swing at him and Nico managed to avoid it, landing back on the ground alongside Dietrich.

"Okay, maybe we can get it into a corner, and…" Nico didn't have a chance to finish his sentence as another mutated fist came from the side and knocked him senseless.

'Shit' Dietrich jumped out of the way as the other monster made a swing at him and found himself cornered by the two against a wall of the house. Breathing heavily, he concentrated his Thunder Flames onto the ground and blasted the two monstrosities with a wave of electricity.

The humanoid creations froze in their tracks, and opened their mouths, screaming. Dietrich clasped his ears as an unearthly sound echoed from them, effectively shattering the windows near him and making him lose his concentration.

"Nico! Dirk!" he heard screams from the mansion and realized that it was Daniela, with Mei trying to shut her up.

"You can't do anything!" Mei yelled at her as the monsters stared at Dietrich for a moment and turned away, moving towards the two girls.

"Ugh." Mei took out her fan, opened the window, and jumped outside to engage the monsters.

Daniela slumped to the floor, sobbing and clutching her head. "Hibari-san… someone…"

Meanwhile, Drakon watched in horror as his student fell from the balcony, eyes wide with shock as the blast of wind made a wide cut across Hachiro's chest. Drakon saw blood in the air, on the balcony, and on his hands, and then everywhere. He screamed.

"_Keep dreaming, kid," they told him when he said he wanted to become one of the Seventh's six Guardians. He could understand why though. At age 15, he was skinny and couldn't hold his own in a fight against a guard dog. Yet, he was determined; Vongola was the only family he had._

_Daniel Calandra, a Greek orphan adopted into an Italian family involved with Vongola at the request of Fabio himself, trained himself every day in an attempt to improve his fighting skills. Eventually, he came to realization that no amount of training would take away his distaste for blood; the sight of the substance surrounding him from his original family at the age of 5 made sure of that._

_He was about to give up when "they" suddenly came. The Estraneo Family scientists warned him that the procedure still had a long way to go before it was perfected, but he accepted anyway. It took him six months of torture before they told him that they have failed. He left._

_It didn't take him long to find out that Fabio had already been proclaimed the Seventh boss of Vongola and had chosen his six Guardians. It also wasn't long before he realized that something was wrong with his own body. He would faint whenever caught in battles and then wake up surrounded by the bodies of his enemies. His friends started to stay away, and he learned to deal with the situation by trying to disappear. No one needed him around anyway._

_He traveled a little, drifting from place to place, until Vongola caught him. He was set for execution for deserting the Family; he didn't mind, whatever suits them._

_Then, Fabio came to visit and told him that Daniel Calandra was dead, and asked Drakon to join the Varia. Drakon went and got his fourteen piercings that weekend before meeting with the Varia. They laughed with him about his swollen ears and offered him some medicine._

_It was then that he finally realized what was wrong or rather, what made him so invaluable to Vongola… his dedication… his curse…_

The Lightning Swordsman looked up when a rain of bodies followed yelling from the rooftop. A silver figure leapt off, landing right in the middle of the circle of lightning as a wave of red flames erupted from Drakon and nullified the green Thunder Flames, extinguishing everything on the balcony except for a measly wave of fire around the other's zweihaender.

The man found himself staring into a pair of light pink snake-like eyes.

_The other guy laughed. "Why do your eyes turn pink of all colors?"_

_Drakon smiled light-heartedly. "Perhaps it's because I do not like the color of blood? That's why my eyes have to make a compromise, and I suppose pink was closest it could get to red."_

"_Weirdo."_

Drakon ran towards him, and he swung the zweihaender down only to have it caught between the other's claws. A brilliantly clear Storm Flame sprang from the Vongola member's hands, and the claws crumpled from the degenerating properties of the Flame. The Lightning Swordsman grinned at his opponent's stupidity only to realize that the metal weapon's position against his zweihaender had been replaced by a real clawed hand.

The second in command of the Varia threw his other weapon aside and plunged his hand into the other's throat, slashing it with his fingernails, long as a carnivore's claws and coated with a clear layer of Storm Flames. The other didn't even have time to yell.

---

Mei dipped the edges of her fan with Storm Flames before throwing it at the closest mass of flesh. The method worked, for the most part; it sliced to the bone of its arm before returning to the girl. Unfortunately, it didn't notice and continued to walk towards Mei and Daniela. 'No blood…'

"Run!" she yelled at Daniela, who just stared at the scene with disbelieving eyes.

Mei jumped nimbly onto the same monster and sent a wave of Storm Flames into it. This time, the beast did yell out, but her Flames were not strong enough and did only that. Before she could react, the other grabbed her and lifted her off the first.

She threw her fan at the one holding her, slicing half its arm, but it didn't let her ago and instead started squeezing. Mei caught her fan, gasping for air, and desperately tried to call out her Storm Flames again. Just then, a wave of electricity sent the monsters howling again, and it dropped her.

The eerie sound filled the complex again and brought both Mei and Dirk to their knees, and they didn't notice that several of the normal soldiers, who had earplugs on to block out the noise, were slowly starting to surround them.

"Don't move!" one of them said, pointing his rifle at Dietrich while another directed his firearm towards Mei Feng. It was then that they realized that something was burning. An orange Flame swept through the area, engulfing them in a scorching heat. The monsters fell to their knees, skin peeling from the heat. Only the two of the Vongola looked around to find the source of the Flame since they were miraculously unaffected.

However, as soon as it had appeared, the wave of fire disappeared, and Daniela fell to the floor, unconscious.

"There's… the… heir," one of the soldiers gasped, standing up. He stopped when a hand went through his chest, ripping out his heart. The last memory any of the remaining Nerio Family attackers that reached the mansion that day had was of a silver haired dragon-like creature with pink eyes.

---

_Or so I've heard… It's mostly second hand accounts._

* * *

Extra: Semi Character Profile – Hachiro Hibari  
Age: 8 years older than Daniela  
Birthday: July 25  
Horoscope sign: Leo  
Blood Type: O  
Place of Birth: Japan  
Eye Color: Dark bluish gray  
Hair Color: Black  
Favorite phrase: (little random insults)  
Favorite food: Japanese  
Flame: Cloud  
Weapons: A pair of sai  
Hobbies: Sleeping, reading, eating

Note: Ah, there was a little mistake in the last profile: Nico is 7 years older than Daniela, not 5. My math is deteriorating… And I changed Drakon's appearance a tiny bit via the description in the last chapter whee, can't make up my mind XD!

Drakon's weapon is like… a katar with three thin blades instead or a cestus with three blades; I don't know what to call it. Think wolverine blades XD.

Crappy sketches of Mei Feng and Drakon are up on deviantart. I dunno what Alfredo looks like yet so… yeah… eventually haha!

Anyways, thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_He touched my book… I suppose I was oversleeping yesterday… couldn't seem to wake up. It was probably better for him to have written the last part, although he probably did do a little researching beforehand. I remember that day; it's like a thorn in my pride. I was still so blinded from my uselessness, but now is not the time to reflect too much. I must finish._

_So afterwards… Yes, I'll start there…_

---

Daniela awoke with a start, breathing heavily from a nightmare. 'Was it all just a dream?' She looked down, noting that she was in her own bed. The rest looked the same: the bookshelves, the mirrors on the wall, the tables, the lamps, the sofa…

'Huh?' The sofa, she was certain, belonged against the wall by the door, not the window with its back facing her. The girl quietly slipped out of bed and realized that she didn't remember getting into bed the night prior or changing into her pajamas. Putting that thought aside, she tiptoed across the room and peered over the back of the sofa.

Hachiro had a book over his face, obviously sleeping. Shaking her head, she walked around the sofa and proceeded to poke him awake when she saw what looked like bandages under his half-buttoned collared shirt.

"To be or not to be… hurry up and kill him already!" Hachiro suddenly said, sitting up with his fist at the air, making Daniela jump backwards. The book had fallen off his face onto the floor and it was then the girl realized that the title said "Hamlet" in gold lettering. She looked back at Hachiro, who stared at her with the dazed look of someone who had just woken up. "Huh?" He then realized that a trail of drool ran down the side of his face and hastily wiped it away on his sleeve. "Excuse me."

'Okay, never read a book while lying down again… and don't sleep with your mouth open…'

"Uh… good morning," Daniela said, half caught in suppressing her laughter and wondering what to say.

"You've been sleeping for two days," he told her as he turned around slowly so that he could sit with back support from the sofa.

"What happened?" she asked him, taking a seat next to him and yawning. She was afraid to hear the answer, but tried to conceal it as best as she could.

"Well, according to Mei and Dirk, you lost control of your Flame and sent it flying throughout the area before fainting. Then when the medical team arrived and tried to revive you, they accidentally set off one of these bombs you had in your pocket, so not only are half of the windows of the mansion gone, several of the back rooms are completely covered in ketchup."

"No! I meant…"

"I know," he smiled. "Nico got a slight concussion and the others have minor cuts and bruises, but other than that, everyone's fine. Your house on the other hand… a repair team arrived yesterday and is currently fixing it up. The Varia is staying over for a bit longer because they like Nico's cooking and…"

"What about you?" she interrupted.

"What about me?" he asked innocently.

'Knew it; he's hiding something,' she thought.

"My dear ex-student here," they turned to see Drakon entering the room with Mei Feng, the latter of which had a few bandages here and there, "decided to 'fake' an injury in order to get me to increase my fighting prowess."

"Did it work?" Daniela asked.

"For the most part…" Hachiro said uneasily, giving his ex-teacher a smile that said, "Don't tell her anymore, please."

"Then…" she began.

"The doctor didn't know how to bandage correctly," Hachiro said casually, buttoning the upper two buttons of his shirt to cover the bandages.

"According to the doctor, the 'ketchup bomb' you used in order to augment the illusion of blood coming from that wound actually extensively deepened the cut the enemy gave you," Mei explained.

Hachiro chuckled. "Okay okay!"

"And the fall from the balcony…" she continued.

"You fell from the balcony?" Daniela looked at him.

"More or less…" he said and looked away. "I calculated and landed in the bushes though."

Daniela frowned. "Shouldn't you be in your own room resting or something then?"

"Your sofa was comfortable enough."

"He wanted to read the book 'Hamlet' that he left in your room," Mei said.

"Hey!"

---

"Ah, the guest of honor!" one of the men said when Daniela walked in. She had half a mind to walk back out, but decided against it; after all, this was the Varia. She caught Mei's eye and smiled, walking over and taking the free seat that the other saved for her.

"Don't worry about them; Nico's got them sedated with food and drink," Mei whispered to Daniela. Indeed, all around them the various members of the Varia were talking heartily and feasting to their victory, mercifully ignoring the young Vongola heir, who had no idea how to deal with so many rowdy adults.

'So that's why I haven't seen Nico today,' Daniela concluded, eying the massive amount of expertly prepared food, most likely all of Nico's doing. She looked around at the others at the table, searching for more familiar faces and only finding Drakon. Daniela knew that Nico was probably still in the kitchen fixing up more food, but Hachiro and Dietrich's lack of presence surprised her.

"Hibari-san is resting in his room, and Dietrich is probably wandering around," Mei explained.

"Is his wound that bad?"

The Chinese girl shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you should go visit him afterwards. I'll go slap some sense into Dirk for being so rude."

Daniela chuckled. "Please try not to do that."

"Hey! Try this, it's really good!" Drakon said, passing a plate over to her.

---

"So the Nerio Family is the one behind the first seven heirs' deaths?" Hibari, lying lazily on the couch in his quarters with a plate of food next to him that Nico had dropped off earlier, asked.

"It looks like it; I mean, you already confirmed it with the Lightning Swordsman, right?" the other person said on the other line.

"It doesn't make sense… why would the Varia act now? The incident four years ago was understandable: no one expected someone to attack the Vongola Family, but the Varia could have prevented the previous four deaths with little difficulty since we were already on high alert."

"Are you implying something?"

"Go look into it for me, will you?"

"Of course, Hibari-san. I'll get back to you."

Hibari hung up and let the phone slide from his hand onto the carpet. He sighed as he glanced over to his food, half hungry and half lacking an appetite. Hachiro poked the bandages, wincing as a fresh wave of pain spread through his chest. "Stupid…" he muttered.

Someone knocked on the door, breaking him out of his reverie, and he called out, "Come in!"

The door slowly opened and closed. "Hibari-san?"

'Oh, it's Daniela…' He thought, about to sit up but thought against it. The wave of pain from earlier still needed a few more seconds to ebb away. "Hey Daniela-chan. Why aren't you at dinner?" he instead said from his current position.

"We've finished. The Varia is leaving tomorrow morning, seeing how everyone seems to be fine."

"Yeah, Drakon told me."

"Why didn't you come to dinner?" she asked him the question he'd rather not answer.

"Didn't feel like it."

She looked at him for a second, biting her lip. "Is it the wound?"

"I just lost more blood than I was supposed to, so I'm a little tired."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks for worrying."

"I wasn't worrying," she retorted, crossing her arms and looking away.

He chuckled. "Sure…" She walked over to him so that he could see her. "Your face…" he suddenly said.

"Excuse me?"

"I meant to say something earlier, but the others were there."

"What about my face?" she asked, glaring at him.

"They took off the bandages…"

"Yeah, so?"

He sat up with a little difficulty and walked over to her, examining the side of her cheek. "There really is a scar…"

She moved his hand away. "Hey, are you still worried about that?"

"Kind of," he replied, frowning.

"I already told you that it's okay."

"Are you sure? They say a woman's face is the world to them," he told her with a smirk on his face.

"They're idiots." She looked away, glaring at the wall for no apparent reason, apparently deep in thought.

He sighed, shaking his head. "Your tutor will be arriving soon."

"What?" She looked back at him in surprise.

"She'll teach you how to fight."

"I don't want to learn how to fight!" Daniela half yelled at him, caught herself, and lowered her voice.

"It's essential for all Vongola bosses. There's no way around it."

"I'll find a way…"

"Remember what happened." He pointed at his chest. "This is evidence."

"Are you blaming me?"

"No, not at all," he replied. 'This won't end well…'

"But you purposely did that to yourself so Drakon could reach us."

He sighed again. "I knew that you guys weren't strong enough, and I in turn wasn't strong enough to cover the entire mansion grounds. That's why we all have to train in order to prepare for any future attacks like this. You should always be on high alert when dealing with the mafia."

"That's…" She paused, trying to sort out the rampant emotions in her. It frustrated her, how everyone expected so much from her. It was… She gave up. "Whatever." She turned around and left, slamming the door behind her.

Hachiro sighed. "I still have a long way to go, don't I?"

He looked at the discarded cell phone and picked it up, wincing as he bent down. After contemplating for a few more seconds, he dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"I need to arrange a flight…"

---

"Disappointed aren't you? At the end it was Drakon who saved all of us."

Dietrich turned around to see Mei walking towards him. "None of your business," he told her and started walking away.

"Did you fall for her because of something she wore?"

He froze and turned to look at her. "How dare you!"

Mei Feng shrugged. "I just happened to hear from someone that you had a crush on the eighth heir, so I decided to study your actions towards her. I've always thought that there were greater reactions when one is in… love."

"Well what do you know about love?" he snapped.

She shrugged. "I suppose I know nothing." She walked away. "Oh I remember why I came here. I thank you saving me two days ago. The Varia will be leaving tomorrow, so I guess I won't be seeing you for a while. Take care."

He watched her walk away. 'What the hell? You don't insult someone and then thank them!' Dietrich grumbled and went back to his spot in the room. 'I'm kind of hungry… maybe I should've eaten with the Varia.' He shook his head, irritated. "No way!" he said out loud.

---

It was a beautiful sunny day. The sky was clear, the birds were singing, the house was finally fixed up, and the Varia was leaving. Numerous black cars with limo-tinted windows had pulled into the mansion earlier that day, and the giant group that Nico had entertained was finally packing their weapons and craziness away.

"We'll visit whenever we around the area!" one of the Varia members yelled out happily to Nico before getting into the car.

"Thank you for the food!" another called out.

"Ah, no problem," Nico said nervously.

"You seem to be extremely popular with Varia now," Drakon laughed, ruffling the butler's hair. "They're usually not this carefree."

"Hey!" he said, trying to fix the ponytail.

"We'll see you again soon, okay?" Drakon told him. "Don't hesitate to call if something comes up."

"Daniela isn't here to see us off," Mei observed.

"Yeah, she's in her room. I don't think she's taking this too well…" Nico said, sighing.

"Please tell her I said goodbye," the Chinese girl told him.

"I'll be sure to do that. Thanks for protecting her."

Mei Feng nodded and turned away, not fast enough for Nico to see the blush that resulted from his compliment. Drakon laughed.

---

"I don't believe this! The tutor's late three hours already!" Nico said, pacing impatiently. "What if…"

"We'll be fine," Hibari said on the side, sitting against the tree reading his book.

"Why aren't you worried? If we get attacked right now, we're screwed! Even if you were fully recovered…"

"She's always like this," Hachiro cut him off. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Try not to a pull a Dietrich when you see her."

"What?" That strange statement caught him by surprise.

"I mean, seeing how you've been stuck here for most of your life, you must not have seen many extremely… well-figured women your age."

"What are you getting at?" Nico exclaimed, turning red.

Hibari smirked. "I'm just saying that she's quite the looker."

"Stop making assumptions about me!"

A black car finally pulled up to the driveway, slowing to a smooth stop in front of the walkway. The chauffeur, a tall muscular man in a suit and black sunglasses, stepped out and opened the back door for his boss. A woman with long slightly curly blond hair, well done make-up, and sunglasses stepped out. She removed her glasses with a leather-gloved hand, revealing a pair of eyes the color of the sky.

"Is zis the right place?" she said in an accent.

'Oh, shit…' was the only phrase that ran through Nico's mind.

---

_What a life we had back then. Even after such an incident, I failed to understand the seriousness behind what actually happened. Needless to say, it was a long time after before I realized why it happened. For now, I was still trying to become familiar with this… mafia boss idea._

_And the Orange Flames from that day… Now that I think about it, they reminded me of the ones from four years prior to what I am writing. I wonder…_

* * *

Extra: Semi Character Profile – Friedrich (Fritz)  
Age: 5 years older than Daniela  
Birthday: May 8  
Horoscope sign: Gemini  
Blood Type: B  
Place of Birth: Germany  
Eye Color: Green  
Hair Color: Blond  
Favorite phrase: Sayonara! Adios! Adieu! Zai jian! (And so on… nevermind, he just likes speaking in different languages)  
Favorite food: cake, ketchup, combination of the two, sweet things  
Flame: Sun  
Weapons: Ketchup, voulge, technology  
Hobbies: Inventing

Note: Wah! I forgot to list age changes! Uh, I'll just mention whenever Daniela's age changes then; she's still 12 since… whenever I last mentioned she was 12. Oh, and profiles will change every now and then because I'm indecisive (mostly the hobbies part). I shall post a profile thingy on deviantart with the complete list, updated whenever a new dude/dudette's profile is posted here.

Oh by the way, Arianne has an accent, but I'm really bad with accents so… yeah it's going to be inaccurate. It's supposed to be a French accent in Italian because her Italian's not perfect, but this story is in English so… ah! I'm going crazy!

Thank you for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

* * *

_Ah, this brings back memories. I suppose this portion won't be too hard to write; Uncle Fabio really put a lot of thought into choosing my home tutor, and for once, I'd agree that he made a fairly good decision. Although, Arianne is not the most traditional teacher; I suppose this made my life a lot easier._

_If she had just decided to go straight into the training, then I supposed it would have never turned out the way it did…_

---

"Arianne," Hachiro said, rising from his place by the tree.

"Ah! Hibari-san! It 'as been too long!" Arianne greeted him, giving him a light peck on the cheek. "'ow ez Lady Daniela doing?"

"I apologize; I seem to have made your job harder," Hibari said, smiling pleasantly, if that was possible. Normally, Nico would say that the Japanese's normal expressions consisted of smirks with hidden meanings.

"Oh zhat's all right. I vosn't planning on starting zee training too early anyway…" Her eyes widened at Hibari's cheek as she was suddenly struck with the urge to laugh, but tried valiantly to suppress it by holding a hand over her mouth.

Hachiro raised an eyebrow at her expression. "Did you get lipstick on me again?"

Arianne and Nico, who had somehow managed to finally shift his attention from the French lady to the bodyguard, both burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Hibari "patiently" waited for the two to finish their uncontrolled laughter with a half smile on his face that said, "I'm going to get you back for this later."

"Ah… I am sorry…" Arianne said between breaths, offering him her handkerchief. He accepted the silk cloth and promptly wiped the lipstick off while Nico managed to tone down his own laughing.

Arianne finally spotted Nico and turned back to Hibari, pointing at the butler. "Ez he the student you mentioned? Or zee wonder cook?" she asked.

"Both," Hachiro answered as he gave the handkerchief back to her.

"Ah, I see." She walked over to Nico and offered her hand. "Pleased to meet you. My name ez Arianne."

"Uh… Nicolas…" Nico replied, nervously shaking her hand. "Nico for short…" He swallowed and composed himself. "Welcome."

She smiled pleasantly and turned back to Hibari. "'ave you packed?"

"Yeah. Can you tell them to pick up my luggage from my room please? It's on the second floor, West Wing, last room to the left."

"Of course!" She left the two to relay the message to the chauffeur, who nodded and ran off towards the mansion.

"Are you going somewhere?" Nico asked incredulously.

"Arianne will cover for me for the time being," he said simply and walked past him, disappearing into the car, leaving a dumbstruck butler gaping at the former bodyguard's retreating form as Arianne walked over to the opened car door.

"Don't stress yourself," Arianne said to Hachiro.

"I won't," he told her. "Call me if there are any… difficulties."

"Ha! Is zhat a challenge? I von't lose!" she declared. Her expression softened a bit, replaced by a hint of worry. "But… 'ow long will you be gone?"

"I'm not sure," he replied, lightly touching the area over the bandages. "This might take at least a few months, and…" He trailed off, giving Nico, who stood far away enough, an absentminded glance. Hachiro brought his eyes back to his friend, frowning a little.

"I vish you well. I 'ope you don't find anything though," she whispered, understanding that he didn't want to confirm his mission. "Oh, and what shewd I tell zee Lady Daniela?"

"Just tell her that I've been reassigned."

Arianne frowned. "This isn't 'ow you treat a girl. She'll be sad."

"She's kind of mad at me as it is," he replied, shrugging. "Even after what happened, she still doesn't want to learn how to fight."

"She ez afraid. Don't worry; leave Lady Daniela to me!"

A small smile briefly graced Hibari's features. "Good luck then. You'll need it." He began to close the car door himself with a little difficulty, not wanting to talk to Nico before he left. However, Arianne grabbed the door lightly, keeping it open.

"Hibari-san…" She came closer so that she could lower her voice even more. "Where do your loyalties lie?"

"The future of Vongola," he muttered back.

"Good answer," she smiled. The chauffeur returned empty handed with a confused expression. "Eh? Where is zee luggage?" she asked him.

"Pardon me, Lady Arianne, but the room on the second floor, East Wing, last one to the right is an unoccupied drawing room," he told her.

"Reverse that," Hibari told him.

He bowed. "Thank you." They watched as the man ran off again with the correct coordinates of Hachiro's room.

"Eh, zorry about zhat," Arianne said, chuckling.

"Your forgetfulness hasn't changed much," Hibari said, smirking.

"Ah, I vos vaiting for you to smirk like zhat!" Arianne declared triumphantly.

"What are you talking about?" Hibari put on a show of innocence. "I have more than one expression you know."

"Of course, of course!" She looked over to Nico, who was had slowly been edging closer and closer during their previous conversation. She grinned and brought her voice down again but made sure that it was just loud enough. "I will once again vish you well with zhee mission."

"It's not a mission," he mouthed, throwing a nervous glance at Nico.

"For Vongola, I consider it zhee mission." Hibari flinched when he noticed Nico catch onto the word. "You are recovering for zhee good of Vongola, right?" she asked, winking.

"Recovering? I'm just taking another vacation," Hibari retorted, letting the little act for the butler fall into place. "Take care of things when I'm gone, Nico!" he called out as the chauffeur returned.

"Have a good stay, Lady Arianne," the chauffeur nodded to her and closed Hibari's door after the Japanese gave her a wave. Nico watched dumbfounded as the car drove away.

"Eh? 'e did not tell you?" she asked Nico when she saw the other's horrified face. He had thought that the entire hushed conversation was just a joke to mess with him.

"No! He didn't say anything!" Nico lamented. He sighed, shaking his head. "What is he thinking?"

"I heard zhat his wound is a little serious," Arianne said, shrugging. "But, it's a good time for a vacation!"

"What? Really?" He suddenly heard a helicopter and looked up, finding a familiar sight.

"Oh, my luggage haz arrived!" Arianne said happily, running to it.

'She's… not another Fritz… right? Wait, they all seem to enjoy flying in their luggage…'

---

"Ez Ms. Daniela not coming down to eat?" Arianne asked when she entered the dining room for lunch.

"She said she's not feeling well. I think we should just leave her alone for a while."

"Ah, I zee." She looked at the food curiously and took a bite. "Oh, zis is delicious! Hibari-san vos right about your cooking!"

"Uh… thank you," Nico blushed at the compliment and tried to change the subject. "Um… so… I don't meaning anything by it, but… why were you late this morning?"

"I took zee wrong plane," she said simply.

"Really?"

"I vos supposed to take the one for Italy but instead went to Greece. Zhen zhey sent me another ticket for Italy and I somehow took the one to Spain. Zhen I think they gave up and just gave me the chauffeur ride here from Spain," she said as if was a normal occurrence.

"Oh…" Nico frowned. 'Was this what Fritz meant? This isn't so bad…'

"Zhen I told zee chauffeur to turn left at zhis intersection, and we ended up at the beach."

"Of Italy?"

"Of my 'ome, France. It vos a beautiful beach."

"I see…" Nico suddenly realized that she was pouring ketchup in her soup. "Hey! You like ketchup too?"

"Huh?" She looked down. "Ah! I thought it vos pepper!"

'Uh oh…'

---

A knock at the door made Daniela look up from her book. She ignored it, turning her seat until it faced the window, opposite of the door. The knocking continued until finally, the visitor gave up and opened the door.

"You shouldn't barge into someone's room without permission," Daniela said, not taking her eyes off her book.

"Your room ez beautiful!" Arianne commented gleefully, ignoring the young heir's remark. Daniela could hear her walk around, admiring the various decorations.

'What? The tutor's female?'

"Oh! A piano! Fabio didn't me you kewd play!"

"I don't play…" Daniela muttered as her ears turned red from behind her book. "It was my mother's…"

"Oh, is zhat so?" The girl heard the sound of the cover lifting, and the chair moved. Suddenly, the sound of music filled the room. It was pleasant, Daniela admitted, identifying the piece as a waltz by Chopin. "I kewd teach you. Music is an important tool…"

Daniela finally turned around to look at her. "Really?"

"… for attracting zhee men!" she finished, grinning mischievously.

The eighth heir of Vongola stared at the newcomer for a second before letting out a, "Huh?"

Arianne laughed "It was a joke! Well, sometimes it is, but I meant it as a joke! Ah, in return for lessons though, you 'ave to let me teach you my other love."

"Love?"

"Sharp objects," she said.

"You mean fighting…"

"Yes yes!" Arianne said enthusiastically.

Daniela frowned as the waltz continued to dance around her, theatening to take her in its arms and waltz around the room.

Arianne closed her eyes when the other didn't respond, allowing her fingers to continue playing. "Lady Daniela will be the eight boss of Vongola. She will protect zhee ones she loves, 'er family."

"I have no family," she muttered under her breath.

"Really now? What about Hibari-san? And zhee wonder cook? Mei Feng, Drakon, Dirk… Zhey are all," she hit the final note of the piece softly, "family, are zhey not?"

Daniela stared at her for a second before smiling a little. "That's kind of what Hibari-san said, but he didn't quite word it that eloquently."

"Zhee great Hibari-san is a great mystery to Vongola sometimes," Arianne said, chuckling. "I knew he vos a softie from the very beginning."

Daniela didn't reply, instead choosing to continue staring at her book.

"So what do you say? Would you let me teach you?"

"You'll teach me piano too, right?" Daniela asked after a moment of contemplation.

"Yes, I will."

"Okay."

"Ah, such persistence when it comes to music! You'll make zee wonderful boss!" Arianne declared happily. "Ah, well shall start tomorrow! I must see which weapons you shewd try out…"

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes yes, as fast as possible."

'This is…' Daniela smiled nervously, 'I'm a little worried now…'

---

"Where's Hibari-san?" Daniela asked as she sat down at the dinner table.

"Uh…" Nico looked away, frowning. 'Why does he leave me with all the hard jobs?'

"I saw him leave this morning," Dirk answered her as he walked in and sat down several seats away.

"Oh, you're still here," Daniela commented.

"What? Are you kicking me out?"

"No, I just thought that you left with Varia."

"Tch, your fault for sulking in your room all this time," Dirk taunted.

"Excuse me?" Daniela glared at him.

"Yeah, because you're such a," he stopped when a soup spoon bounced off his forehead.

"Hey! That could have killed me!"

"It was a soup spoon, not a knife! Sheesh!"

"Just because it's not sharp doesn't mean it can't kill!"

"Hibari-san haz been reassigned for the time being," Arianne cut in, chuckling at the two's bickering.

"Reassigned? When will he be back?" Daniela exclaimed.

"When people get reassigned, they don't go back to their old jobs, you know," Dirk answered for her as he massaged his forehead.

"Oh…"

"Wait, what/? I thought he was taking a vacation!" Nico said suddenly.

'Oops…' Arianne thought as she tried to remember the story the two of them came up with. 'I think I forgot what I was supposed to say.'

"He's been both reassigned and is taking a vacation!" she said confidently.

"Oh…" Daniela muttered. "Ah, yes! Let's eat!" she said, trying to change the atmosphere.

'It's… normal for people to disappear and never come back… right?'

---

"Hibari-san!" Arianne sang into the phone.

"Already?" the other answered incredulously, yawning.

"No no, Hibari-san! I forgot what to tell zhem," she replied, lamenting her forgetfulness.

"What did you tell them?" the other asked, suddenly serious and alert.

"Vacation and reassignment."

Hibari was silent for a moment. "That's correct though."

"Ah? But you said reassignment, zhem you joked about vacation, and zhen we both decided on rehabilitation."

"And you told them the previous two…"

"Yeah…"

"Good enough."

"Huh?"

"But you should probably drop in a line about rehab; the doctors told me that it'll take at least two months. Also, I don't think I'll be back anytime soon anyway," he said quietly on the other end.

"Eh, why?"

"I've just arrived at the base. The data they've received is… no… I'll talk with Fritz; he'll definitely figure this out."

"Sabotage? Betrayal? Ketchup bombs?" she whispered, eager to ear the drama.

"It's too early to conclude any of that. I'll get back to you."

"Okay. Be careful."

"Same goes for you." He hung up.

---

"Okay, zhee first lesson will be in…" Arianne shuffled through her suitcase, pushing aside what sounded like numerous pieces of metal and leather sheathes. "Swords!" She removed a sheathed mid-sized sword and tossed it casually to Daniela, who almost dropped the object in surprise.

"On guard!" Arianne said excitedly, brandishing her own sword.

Daniela stared at the object in Arianne's hand. "Are you sure that won't discharge?"

"Um… Daniela, swords don't shoot…" Nico said, surprised at what she just said. They had decided to train in the forest a little distance away from the main house so that they wouldn't disturb the other servants. The butler had insisted on tagging along just in case anyone needed first aid.

"Eh? You can zee it?" Arianne said, shocked. She then smiled. "Ah, so zis is Vongola Intuition."

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked, confused, looking at the foil in Arianne's hand.

"Don't worry, I took out zee bullets," she continued.

"What?" the butler tried to get more information, but Arianne had already swung a Daniela, who stared blankly ahead until the sword stopped next to her face.

"Er… you are supposed to block," Arianne said, frowning.

"Huh?" Daniela realized that Arianne's weapon was already next to her head.

"But the sword…" she began.

"Don't worry, you won't be able to hurt me with that. Okay, this time watch my movements and try to block."

They continued the "training" for another hour with no visible results, although Daniela had effectively cut off a branch from a nearby tree during one of her wild swings.

"Ah, maybe…"

"I don't think I want to use swords…" Daniela muttered, looking at the weapon in her hand. "It doesn't feel right…"

"Don't worry about it! We can try axes tomorrow!" Arianne said excitedly. "Then guns, then golf clubs…"

'I don't want to try axes either! I don't even want to use weapons!' Daniela thought.

At that moment Arianne froze as she she looked past Daniela.

"Don't move," Arianne told Daniela. The French lady took out a cartridge, loaded it into her gun, and fired a warning shot a few millimeters away from the bear's ear. The animal roared out in fright and ran away.

"Ah!" Nico gasped.

"Huh? Oh, you are surprised that my gun fired?" She sighed, realizing that he had been moving towards the animal earlier, readying to draw his katana if the creature were to attack. "I supposed I can shew you now."

She held out the sword, and Nico watched with amazement as an indigo Flame suddenly exploded from it, slowly revealing a rifle.

"Wait, so do you really use other weapons?"

She grinned. "I cheat! It's a good tactic. It's not every day you expect a sword or an ax to fire bullets."

Nico stared at the gun for a moment. "Who else knows about this?"

"Er… Hibari-san… the Seventh… a few people here and there. Zhey keep it official that I can use other weapons."

"I see…"

"That Flame…" They turned to see Daniela looking at the fire around Arianne's rifle.

"This…" Arianne raised her gun to the air, "is the greatest asset to a human's repertoire of weapons."

"Can you… teach that to me?"

Arianne smiled. "Of course."

---

… _and so this pattern would continue for another year. After the first few months, I began to feel as if I just wasn't cut out for this mafia business, that I didn't belong to an exclusive family of people I've never met before, many who could probably kill a person without so much as a backward glance._

_Me? I couldn't even lift a single weapon during that year without instinctively feeling as if I had taken an alien object from another world into my hands, one that never did fit quite right._

_Arianne's hunt for my "perfect weapon" dragged on… and Hachiro…_

_The Flames…_

* * *

Note: Argh! My attempt at writing an accent is totally failing! MS Word is just marking everything red and green!

Daniela will be 13 starting in the next chapter.

Thanks for reading!


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